The Price of Betrayal
"Please spare me! I was wrong!"
A splitting headache and a burning, searing pain.
Amidst the agony, Annas slowly opened her eyes.
'Ugh... Damn it...'
Her vision was hazy, cut in half.
As her sight barely managed to focus, Annas finally realized what was standing right in front of her.
And,
"!..."
She immediately regretted waking up.
"Oh... You're finally awake, are you? You filthy little insect."
A terrifying smile played on the lips of the entity before her.
She possessed a beauty so dazzling it was almost blinding, yet she was simultaneously a monster wielding power beyond imagination.
The moment Annas saw her, an instinctive terror born from her recent memories surged within her, and she tried to flee on the spot.
However.
Clank!
"Ah!"
A sharp pain immediately flared in her neck and limbs.
Only then did Annas realize her body was bound tight in heavy iron chains.
Realizing escape was impossible, Annas stared up at her with a face pale with dread.
Watching the monster slowly draw closer, Annas began to shriek in a trembling, desperate voice.
"W-Wait! Just wait! Wh-who even are you? Why are you attacking me? What... What did I do wrong to deserve this?!"
"Fufu... What did you do wrong, you ask?"
The woman let out a chilling laugh as she stepped right up to Annas's nose.
Then, slowly and deliberately.
A golden arrow, the size of a palm, began to materialize in her empty hand.
And...
Thwack!
"Aaaaargh!!!!"
She drove the arrow straight through one of Annas's wrists.
A horrific agony flared, and a wretched scream tore from Annas's throat.
"I knew you were a lowly insect that deserved extinction, but I didn't realize you could be this foolish. To dare harm the sacred body of the great one, and yet you cannot even comprehend your own sin."
"Cough... Cough... Urgh..."
The woman spouted words that made no sense.
But at this moment, Annas didn't have the luxury to care about what she meant.
The woman's arrow inflicted a pain on a completely different level than mere iron—it felt as though her flesh was being burned alive from the inside out.
Trapped in the worst pain she had ever experienced, in a way she had never anticipated.
Only one thought echoed in Annas's mind.
'Why?... Why is this happening to me...'
She writhed in agony, repeating the endless question in her head.
Yet, even as she watched her suffer, the woman merely kept a smile on her face and continued her work.
She could not afford to miss this first opportunity to display her loyalty.
Before her precious master awoke, she wanted to prepare the very sight he would most wish to see.
Like a child eager to show their parents the first sandcastle they had ever built, she harbored that simple, pure emotion in her chest...
The moment Apollona opened the door, I couldn't help but frown instinctively.
'This is...'
A thick pool of blood stained the floor, and the metallic stench of gore assaulted my nose.
And alongside it, a single scene entered my view.
It was.
Annas, bound to the floor in chains, with her hands and feet completely severed.
"Ugh... Ah... Urgh..."
One of her eyes had been gouged out, leaving a hollow socket, and everything below her wrists and ankles was gone.
She was in a state where escape was a literal impossibility.
Bleeding from her severed limbs and empty socket, groaning in sheer agony, she was a pitiful sight by any normal standard.
However.
"I could have bound her in a gentler manner, but since she is a sinner who dared attack the Adjuster, I took the liberty of handling her as I saw fit. How... is it?"
"Excellent. You did well, Apollona."
"Ah... Thank you, Adjuster."
Apollona's question carried a hint of caution mixed with subtle anticipation.
In response, I expressed my sincere gratitude to her for providing me with such a satisfying spectacle.
Though it was an objectively gruesome sight, I felt absolutely no sympathy or pity for Annas at this moment.
Rather, my heart was filled with joy and ecstasy.
And.
Slide.
Looking at the filthy traitor lying before me like a fully prepared dish, I felt a dark, burning desire to inflict pain upon her with my own hands.
"!! Se... Seton...?"
The moment she recognized my face, Annas's expression twisted in even deeper terror.
Staring down at her,
Thrust!
"Aaaargh!"
I drove my sword straight into her flank as payment for earlier.
"Ah... Aaaah..."
A pained groan escaped Annas's lips.
To my ears, it was the sweetest sound. With a cold smile on my face, I spoke with genuine delight.
"Life is truly unpredictable... wouldn't you agree?"
"Ugh... Urgh!"
"You should have behaved yourself. You filthy traitor. I raised you, and this is how you stab me in the back?"
"I... I was... wr-wrong... Cough! Cough!"
As the wretched woman tried to squeeze out an apology, I drove the sword even deeper into her flank.
The blade penetrated her body, narrowly missing her vital organs.
As a Grand Master-rank adventurer, my swordsmanship was at a level I could take pride in, and I used that skill to expertly inflict the maximum amount of pain possible.
And finally, just as she reached her limit.
Slick.
"Cough!... Ah... Ugh..."
Right before she could die of shock from the extreme pain, I pulled the sword out.
Annas, trembling in agony, looked up at me with desperate eyes and began to beg.
"Pl-Please spare me!! Se-Seton... I was... I was wrong!"
The arrogance she displayed when trying to kill me earlier was entirely gone; she was now begging for her life.
Watching her, I remained silent for a moment.
Annas struggled against her chains, dragging her body to prostrate herself on the floor, continuing her desperate pleas.
"I was a fool to be swayed by the Hero... Please, please forgive me just this once! I... I don't want to die like this... Please... Just a little... even a little mercy is fine, please show me mercy!"
"..."
Instead of the proud, confident assassin she once was, Annas was now begging for her life like a dog crawling on the floor.
Suppressing my anger, I spoke to her in a cold voice.
"If you answer my questions truthfully from now on, I might consider it."
"! Yes! I... I will! I'll answer! I'll answer anything, so please... just spare my life!"
"..."
Perhaps because Apollona's 'preparatory work' had been so thorough, Annas's spirit had broken much faster than expected.
Seeing this, I asked the first question I needed answered.
"Tell me. Who is it? Who ordered you to kill me?"
"!"
At my question, a look of deep panic crossed Annas's face, and she began to answer in a trembling voice.
"Th-that's... the Hero, Judah, told me to make sure there were no loose ends..."
"Apollona."
"Yes, Adjuster."
"!!! W-Wait... Just a moment, I... I was wr—Aaaaargh!!!!"
The moment my command fell, Apollona drove an arrow straight into Annas's severed wrist.
Another agonizing scream erupted from Annas's mouth. Staring down at her, I spoke in a voice dripping with ice.
"Spout nonsense one more time, and that's the end of you. If you want to live, tell the truth."
"Ugh..."
My position as Guild Master, my honor, and even my beloved fiancée.
Annas and her companions in the Hero party had already stripped me of everything I possessed.
Furthermore, there was not a single person left in the Empire who would help me.
Though my personal combat power was still formidable, I had lost my political foundation, my connections, and my wealth, leaving me like a broken vessel with nowhere to turn.
Of course, I had come to this remote southern forest to reverse that situation, but that was based on a legend passed down in secret within my family.
I was the only person in the Empire who knew something was hidden here.
Yet.
Annas, a member of the Hero party who had nothing left to fear, had relentlessly pursued me all the way here to take my life.
And she did so at a crucial time when she should have been solidifying her position within the guild alongside Judah, the new Guild Master.
This meant there was someone backing her...
Someone who had commissioned her, an assassin, to bring them my head.
I punished her for trying to lie even in this situation.
After hesitating once more, Annas finally opened her mouth.
And the words that came out of her mouth were...
"I... I don't know..."
"...Is this bitch playing with me?"
"It seems I must gouge out her remaining eye as well."
With those words, Apollona raised her arrow, ready to plunge it into Annas's last remaining eye.
At that moment.
"W-Wait... Just wait! It's not that I won't tell you, I really don't know! I-I did receive the request, but it was through an intermediary!"
"Hold on."
Annas explained frantically.
I gestured for Apollona to stop, then asked her with a much more serious tone.
"You accepted a contract without even knowing who the client was? Knowing your personality, that makes no sense."
"Y-Yes! Th-that's true! I was going to reject it, asking if they thought they could just buy me with money... but the amount was too large to refuse..."
"...Just how much did they offer?"
At this point, I couldn't help but be curious about the sum.
To my question, Annas answered in a trembling voice.
"Ten million gold."
"!... Wh-what?"
The sum was so far beyond my imagination that I wondered if I had misheard, but she answered in a voice that held not a shred of deceit.
"It was ten million gold. The down payment alone was four million, and they promised another six million once the job was done..."
"...Are they insane?"