There's No Way I Can Cut Off My Own Arm Sane—Mmph!
"Sometimes, because of this, even I forget. But whether it's the succubus's influence or what, it happens at the most random times."
"Are you... okay?"
"More or less? Given the circumstances, even if my body is forcing me to feel horny, it's not like I absolutely can't hold it in."
I only mentioned it so she'd be prepared, but blurting out that I was horny made things feel incredibly awkward.
"I don't know what'll happen once we get out, though. Hopefully, it won't get any worse."
"...We can get out of here, right?"
Deep down, I wanted to tell her of course we can, but we were just two powerless girls, and our captors were six grown men. I honestly didn't know.
Their surveillance was lax, but we were the only ones in this place, and the tiny room we were locked in contained nothing but a bed and a toilet. If we tried anything, they'd find out instantly.
Even so, the only thing I could do was...
"Ah."
"Huh?"
"I have to try something. Let's see if those bastards slit my throat first, or if I slit theirs."
I said those words, but...
"Aaaaargh!!!!Hic, ack, gurgle...!"
"That makes four. How fascinating that your regenerative abilities aren't declining at all; if anything, they seem to be adapting to your body and speeding up. I wonder if it's just a highly compatible match, or if this is the correct path."
"Sob, ugh... Huff..."
The excruciating agony of my arm being severed was vividly fresh. I had hoped that since it had already been cut off once, repeating the process might make it easier to bear. But there was no such luck.
If anything, those bastards had grown so accustomed to the act of butchering me that they sliced it off again before the pain of the previous regeneration had even faded. I was on the verge of losing consciousness.
Actually, I had already blacked out twice today. Or was it more? I might have passed out a few more times without even realizing it.
Between the nauseating pain and my shattered focus, I couldn't even remember what had triggered each blackout.
My sense of time was slipping away. How long did it take for this arm to heal? Six hours? Twelve?
But was it even possible to have it cut off two or three times a day?
Was it the other arm?
Thank goodness the slime had dulled my pain receptors. Otherwise, I would have died of spinal shock long ago.
Or maybe my brain's recovery had sped up too, and I was just blacking out repeatedly instead of dying.
"You're... really working hard to collect those. What, are you... planning a meat party?"
"There's too little flesh for that, I'm afraid. Though, if we process it into jerky and sell it in the underworld, we might make a fortune."
"It doesn't... rot or disappear right away after being cut... Having my flesh spread across the whole country... is a bit gross..."
And so, I blacked out for the God-knows-how-many-eth time.
"Excellent news. Your recovery is proceeding without a single hitch."
"Cutting off my arm on day one and only realizing that by week one? Wow, what a brilliant fucking genius we have here."
Perhaps because they had only severed my limbs, I was fortunately still clinging to my sanity.
If they had gouged out my eyes, harvested my organs, or branded me with fire, I would have been reduced to a mindless husk by now.
Then again, would a normal person even be able to stay sane after having their limbs chopped off repeatedly?
I no longer feared that my arm wouldn't grow back, and I had grown accustomed to the sensation of it being severed, but the raw agony of the act itself was something I could never escape.
These motherfuckers had gotten plenty of practice cutting me up, but their surgical skills hadn't improved one bit.
"Where are you looking? I believe we agreed you wouldn't touch Meria as long as I'm alive."
Noticing Endel's gaze, I hid Meria behind my back. Endel merely shrugged.
"I have no intention of using her as a test subject. Besides, we've arranged to procure other subjects separately. We have to gather new materials anyway, which is quite a hassle for us. It's just... she looks far more haggard than you do."
Well, of course she did, considering she'd been locked up for a week. But on top of that, she had to listen to my screams every single day, only to watch me drag myself back into the room with missing arms and legs...
Hearing those screams for an entire week while being completely powerless to help—it was bound to destroy anyone's mental state.
I couldn't help but scream, but did these bastards not even bother to soundproof the adjacent room? Apparently, every single one of my agonizing shrieks echoed clearly into this cell.
After Endel left, I spent a long time agonizing over my thoughts.
What was the right thing to do?
Was it better to keep flailing as I sank into the quicksand?
Or should I stay still, slowing my descent, and pray for someone to rescue us?
"Meria."
"Yes...?"
"You don't plan on dying here, right? You still have delicious food to eat out there, and you need to go back to your parents."
"......"
Meria nodded, looking thoroughly dejected, like a student who had just been scolded by her teacher.
"Break my arm."
"What???"
"We have to try something. My arm will regenerate anyway, my pain is dulled, and I've already had the whole thing chopped off multiple times. If we break my arm, I can pull out the bone inside and use it to escape."
Meria stared at my arm, then shook her head violently.
"First of all, I'm not strong enough, and even if I were, I can't do it! I won't! I mean, I know you've been through worse, and I know this might hurt less than getting it chopped off, but still..."
"I'm not planning to do this while fully lucid either. We'll do it right after I come back from their 'surgery,' when I'm barely conscious. The only problem is, I don't know the best way to break it."
I had truly gone mad. No matter how desperate I was to escape, and no matter how dulled my pain was, to think I was suggesting not just breaking my arm, but practically snapping it off...
"Besides, they don't watch us right after they finish an experiment. That's our window."
"If our escape fails, I'm going to resent you for the rest of my life for making me do this."
"Just pretend you're tearing apart a little slime near your village, like you did when you were a kid."
"I never played like that!"
"Oh? You didn't?"
"Well, I don't mean to brag, but I grew up in a major city. I preferred playing inside the city walls rather than outside, and the surrounding areas only had normal animals."
Ah, so she was a pampered city girl.
It wasn't like I grew up poor or in some tiny, backwater village either, so maybe I didn't need to be that envious.
Sigh, I miss Mom and Dad. I'm even starting to miss my older sister.
"Maybe talking about it will help calm us down... What about your family, Sis?"
"Just a normal town. It's in the south, about halfway between the capital and the border. Monsters show up pretty often nearby, so a lot of adventurers stay there. It's actually fairly developed because of that. My parents ran a business there."
"Is that where you learned swordsmanship? I only ever wanted to go on adventures, so I never actually learned how to fight."
My mind had been on the verge of collapsing just moments ago, but having a goal and sharing a conversation made the situation feel a little more bearable.
"Yeah. My only older sister helped our parents run the shop."
I paused, thinking for a moment.
"She has a massive chest, though. I think you'd really like her, Meria."
"I am not that much of a boob pervert! But still, once we get out of here, I'll definitely have to go and introduce myself."
"Are there a lot of adventurers in a big city like yours?"
"No, surprisingly not. It's not that our city is perfectly safe, but there's a specific noble family that has a tight grip on it. They basically run everything in the surrounding territory."
Meria looked up, tracing a line in the air as if visualizing the layout of her hometown.
"I'll tell you everything when we have the chance. Right now, there are just too many embarrassing things..."
Secrets, huh... I wondered if I should tell her about Lady Eral.
"Do I look like the type of girl who's popular with other girls?"
"You do realize that's a very bizarre question, right?"
"I'm not trying to brag."
I'd been confessed to by girls before, and while we hadn't kissed on the lips, I'd definitely gotten a few kisses on the cheek...
"Well, I did fall for you, strike up a conversation, and sleep with you. But I had no idea you were this promiscuous."
"Hey, I am not promiscuous."
"Still, knowing all this actually makes me like you even more. To think someone with such a scary impression got confessed to by a sister and at the academy, yet never even kissed anyone... only to go straight from a first kiss to sex with me."
Meria giggled happily, completely out of place given our current situation.
Hey, lady, I know it'll grow back, but I'm currently missing an entire arm here.
"We've managed to wash up with water, but it's been almost a week since we got here, so it's a shame we look so disheveled. It's a good thing we're just casual partners; if we were actual lovers, my hometown would be in an absolute uproar."
"It wouldn't be that bad."
I wondered how Lady Eral was doing. Considering she had kissed me on the cheek, would she be shocked to find out about Meria?
It felt a bit silly to think about, but imagining her staring at me with that worried, intense gaze of hers was incredibly cute. One more reason to escape.
The next day, my luck held out; the only limb they took for their experiments was my left arm.
Far from slowing down, my regeneration was actually accelerating. Now, it took only about ten minutes for my arm to fully grow back.
The sensation of the flesh knitting back together was painful, but compared to the agony of having it sliced off, it was entirely manageable.
"Are you ready?"
"Ready to resent you for the rest of my life?"
"Ready to have a story to tell over drinks for the rest of your life."
My mind was still hazy from having my arm severed moments ago. To keep myself from snapping back to full alertness, I didn't grit my teeth; instead, I let my consciousness drift halfway, focusing entirely on dark, miserable thoughts.
I extended half of my newly regenerating arm off the edge of the bed, and Meria positioned herself, ready to jump down onto it.
Naturally, I didn't expect it to break cleanly.
I had no idea if it would snap exactly where I wanted, or if I'd even be able to pull the bone out. It was purely a desperate, we have to try something gamble.
Meria wasn't particularly heavy, and even considering the leverage, I figured my arm would probably just bend awkwardly. But then—
CRACK!!!
"...!!!"
It was a sound that unmistakably signaled something had gone horribly wrong.
The noise was so loud that my very first thought was how incredibly glad I was that the guard wasn't around.
"...Mmph, gasp..."
This pain was entirely different from the sensation of being sliced open. I had foolishly assumed that since I'd had my limbs chopped off multiple times, snapping my forearm would be a walk in the park. I couldn't have been more wrong.
"Oh, I swear, you're going to be the death of me...!"
Meria stamped her feet in a panicked, hushed frenzy, but that didn't matter right now.
Fortunately, my forearm was now hanging by a thread of mangled flesh. For someone who had grimaced and insisted she couldn't do it, she had done a remarkably thorough job.
"If I have to hear this story over drinks twice, I'm going to throw up."
With tears blurring my vision, I had the rare, exquisite pleasure of tearing off my own arm with Meria's assistance.
Praying to whatever gods were listening that it wouldn't immediately start growing back, I buried my face in the mattress, weeping and gritting my teeth.
The biggest concern had been whether we could actually sever it ourselves, but now that it was off, I felt a strange sense of relief.
"Ha... gasp, mmph...!"
Just as we had planned, Meria quickly hid the severed arm under the bed. Once the worst of the chaos settled, I shoved my stump beneath the frame as well, gritting my teeth to keep from screaming as I did my best to conceal the pooling blood.
I will pay you bastards back for every single ounce of this pain...