Chapter 53
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: White Wolf
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The way out was far more hellish than the way in.
It wasn't just my imagination.
My back had literally been flayed raw.
"......Ugh."
I was slung over Kain's shoulder like dead weight, being dragged along.
I couldn't even lift my feet; my legs had no strength left.
Fuck, words like "it hurts like hell" didn't even come close.
It felt like my very soul had been shredded by a blender's blades.
My body was utterly drained.
And that made sense, because
those bastards hadn't just beaten my back with iron clubs and called it a day.
[Good. Now brand it in.]
Those words from that pig of an overseer still echoed in my ears.
Right then, a scrawny hunchback prick showed up
holding a carving knife about the size of a ballpoint pen, its tip hooked like a claw.
He pressed it straight into the burned, mangled mess of skin on my back.
Squelch.
The bastard started peeling off the cooked flesh clinging to my back,
just like skinning a potato.
I hadn't even flinched extra or twisted more than anyone else to piss them off.
It wasn't some additional torture for insolence.
No, it was because
[Owner: Baekrin]
proving a slave's owner wasn't done by scribbling on paper,
but by carving it directly into the slave's back in the most barbaric, primitive way imaginable.
He literally gouged with the knife and peeled.
No exaggeration or embellishment.
Of course, no anesthetic shots or numbing cream.
Not even a tattoo needle—just a real carving knife.
The kind you see in elementary school art class for whittling wood.
On top of my already well-done roasted back,
he scraped and sliced away, mangling it further.
The pain was beyond words—indescribably excruciating.
Stinging, burning, nauseating.
I'd clenched my teeth so hard throughout the burning and carving that my jaw ached.
I'd have been grateful enough to kowtow if they'd just knocked me out.
I panted, glancing sideways.
Baekrin.
The woman who was now legally my owner walked silently beside me.
With that kid she despised, Noy, strapped to her back.
A white status band was wrapped around her arm.
And on it was the info for her newly registered property: me.
[Slave: White Wolf]
"......What's 'White Wolf' supposed to mean?"
"Your name."
"Sounds like...... a mutt's name."
Baekrin ignored my grumbling.
She just stared straight ahead and kept walking.
Typical country bumpkin naming sense—totally tacky.
Was she trying to advertise she's from the East?
Or naming me after some stray dog she raised?
Slaves and dogs get treated about the same anyway.
At least she wasn't a total bonehead, which was a relief.
After dragging our asses all the way here on that rustbucket ship,
and dyeing my hair black to boot,
using my real name 'Leon' would be like screaming 'Please find me!'
while streaking naked through the streets like a perverted hide-and-seek addict.
I was done with running, for real.
That's why we bought the status band
and let them fuck up my back like this.
And so, our group trudged down the street in silence.
Maybe because of the band on her arm, or my fucked-up appearance,
passersby glanced our way but no one hassled us.
At least we'd escaped those hyena-like,
sticky, chilling stares.
"Here."
Kain stopped in front of a rundown inn in the port's back alleys,
without even a proper sign.
No other choice if we wanted to save money.
Creeeak.
The room was cramped and damp.
Just enough space for one bed, reeking of mold.
Still, to my exhausted eyes, it looked like a five-star suite.
"Rest up for now."
Kain gently laid me on the bed,
face-down so my back wouldn't touch.
"Ugh......"
The moment my face hit the bed, my mind went hazy.
With tension gone, pain and fatigue crashed over me like a tsunami.
Baekrin roughly dumped Noy, whom she'd been carrying, next to me.
The kid slept soundly, oblivious to the world. Lucky little shit.
"......Money."
"......"
"Pay up."
Through my fading consciousness,
I heard Baekrin and Kain murmuring.
Money... payment. Important.
To eat and survive.
My eyelids grew heavier than lead,
and in the end,
I sank into darkness.
Leon's steady breathing began to fill the room.
A deep silence, whether unconsciousness or sleep, I couldn't tell.
A heavy quiet hung in the air.
Clink.
The metallic jingle shattered the stillness.
The candle on the table flickered, casting long shadows from the stacked gold coins beneath.
"......18 gold."
Kain murmured lowly as he set down the last coin.
Deep furrows creased his brow.
His rough hand stroked his chin beard.
"You've got 10 gold. I've got about 8 left...... total 18 gold."
"Not a small amount."
"Maybe on the central continent, but not here."
Kain clicked his tongue and pointed at the inn's worn ceiling.
"Even a rat-hole like this costs 25 silver a night.
Just the bare room—no water, no meals."
"......Expensive."
"Expensive? Everything but breathing costs money here."
Ruben Kingdom, Nahark.
A city where money is status, money is law.
In this insane kingdom that charges 30 gold for a status band,
18 gold was a death sentence—barely enough for four people to scrape by for three months.
"And that guy."
Kain nodded toward Leon, sprawled face-down.
"With his back like that, medicine won't be cheap.
To recover properly, he'll need at least a fortnight bedridden."
They'd peeled off the burned, clumped flesh and carved letters into it.
If that flesh rotted, even his tenuous lifeline could snap.
"We'll need to earn money."
He pocketed about a third of the gold coins.
"Day labor barely covers food.
Without staking our lives, settling here is impossible."
"......Mercenary work?"
"Yeah. Dirty and dangerous, but nothing's more reliable."
Kain stood.
From deep in his bosom, he pulled out something wrapped in cloth.
Thud.
He set it on the table:
something briny from salt exposure, reeking of the sea.
Things Baekrin had jumped into the ocean for during the voyage and fished out.
"Not sure if this'll turn into money or shit...... but we gotta appraise it.
I'll take it to some experts."
Kain tucked it away, draped his cloak, and approached Noy, curled up like a shrimp beside Leon.
"......Mm."
As Kain carefully lifted him, Noy fussed sleepily but burrowed into his chest.
Even with the rough beard touching him, he settled back into snores, as if familiar.
Baekrin eyed him curiously.
"Why take the kid?"
"You wanna watch him?"
"......"
"His dad's in that state, so I'll keep him for now."
Kain adjusted Noy expertly in one arm.
One-armed cripple or not, his hold was steady.
"Finding work and scouting will take days. Meanwhile......"
Kain's gaze lingered on Leon, sprawled on the bed.
His eyes held complex emotions.
"Take care of that guy."
"Don't worry."
Without looking at Kain,
"My slave...... no,"
she gazed down at the sleeping Leon and replied flatly.
"My slave."
Her voice carried a strange weight.
Kain chuckled wryly, nodded, and opened the door.
He left without looking back.
Bang.
The rickety wooden door shut,
leaving only heavy silence in the room.
Left behind: a slave passed out with his back in tatters,
and his owner, Baekrin, with her white band, staring blankly down at him.
"......"
She stared for a long while, then slowly approached the bedside.
Creeak.
The old bed groaned as she perched on the edge.
"......"
Her gaze fixed on Leon's back.
[Owner: Baekrin]
Mesmerized, she reached out.
Her cold fingertips barely grazed the hot, raw skin of his back.
'Mine.'
A bizarre sensation.
To survive, she'd killed and taken countless things.
But owning someone's entire life—
their very existence—this was new.
"......White Wolf."
She murmured the name she'd given him.
The feel of it in her mouth wasn't bad.
"Ugh......"
Then Leon groaned in pain.
His brow furrowed deeply, sweat pouring from him.
The pillow under his face soaked with drool and sweat.
Baekrin reached for his nape,
grabbing a fistful of his thick black hair.
"Ack...!"
Leon's body jerked.
Her touch lacked any delicacy.
But she brushed aside his sweat-matted hair roughly anyway.
"Don't die."
Baekrin whispered lowly.
"I paid good money for you."
Three days passed like that.
"......What, 25 silver a night?!"
A scream burst from my lips.
"These fucking thieves! What is this, a five-star hotel?"
"......Shut up. You're loud."
Baekrin scowled, pressing her finger into my back.
"Aaack! Hey! Gently! Gently, I said!"
I yelped and buried my face in the bed.
But she ignored me,
slathering some mystery green ointment all over my back.
This wasn't a massage; it was plastering.
Even a bricklayer slapping cement would feel like a Swedish prostate massage compared to her.
Not that I'd ever tried one in my past life. Too damn pricey.
I'd just envied the vivid reviews from the bricklaying uncles.
"You fucking bitch, you're doing this on purpose, huh!?"
My gut burned.
Not my back—my wallet.
Back in the central continent slums, Jerome that glasses prick gouged 20 silver a week rent from the whores.
And here, in this moldy dump no different,
25 silver a night?
What kind of ridiculous rip-off prices?
And more terrifying than the cost was her "nursing."
From the moment I woke from my coma,
I'd been under constant threat to my life for three days straight.
[Eat.]
She'd shove a spoonful of porridge into the roof of my mouth.
[Gonna shit yourself?]
Drag me to the toilet by the scruff like a sack of trash.
So I had to muster superhuman recovery just to survive.
Trembling arms? I'd lift the food myself.
No sphincter control? I'd crawl holding the wall to take a dump.
Leave it to her, and I'd die not from pain,
but from her physically snapping my neck.
"......Weird."
Her hands paused mid-ointment.
She tilted her head, peering intently at my back.
"What? Pus?"
"No. Too fast."
"What is."
"Healing."
Baekrin tapped the scab on my back.
Honestly, I was puzzled too.
Couldn't see my own back, but I knew my condition better than anyone.
They'd raw-peeled the burned flesh and mangled it,
so pus should've oozed for weeks,
and with no money for real treatment,
just cheap ointment and sloppy bandages.
Yet now? Scabs already formed.
For such shitty treatment on a brutal injury,
it was miraculous, superhuman regeneration.
"Weird. You a monster?"
"Monster? You seen a monster this handsome?"
I scoffed it off.
"That old man Kain poured enough potions down my throat. Must be the lingering effect."
"......Maybe."
"And healing fast is good, right? You want my back rotting off?"
Smack!
"Aaack! You fucking bitch! Beating a patient now!?"
"Slave mouthing off."
Baekrin slapped the unscabbed part lower on my back.
She'd hit me so much, even this felt considerate.
Was I brainwashed into some masochistic pig?
"Fuck. Seriously......"
I was pissed beyond words.
Woke up, grasped the situation,
knew my place.
I'm her slave now.
So I'd played polite for social harmony.
With my experience sucking up to crazy Sharl,
[Good morning, Mistress.]
I'd greeted her courteously,
only for her to go
[......Makes me wanna puke. Shut up.]
[But you are my mistress.]
[Just act normal. It's creepy.]
She hated it, so I relaxed,
and now she's on about my mouth.
Which tune do I dance to?
Truly an unreasonable bitch.
"Done applying."
Baekrin grabbed a white cloth from the table.
Then pinned my body under her knee, wrapping the bandage tight with her weight.
"Wait, too tight...... Gah!"
"Hold still."
Crack.
My ribs screamed.
She wasn't bandaging; she was embalming a corpse.
"Hngh! Ghk!"
Breath choked off.
Thinking I'd die, I thrashed,
but she tied the final knot rock-solid.
"Done. Get up."
"You psycho... Hah, hah......"
I gasped, collapsing.
My torso squeezed so tight,
every breath ached in my chest.
"Get up."
"Yeah, yeah... damn it."
I groaned, propping up my upper body.
My back pulled, but not deathly so.
Thought I'd rest now.
But Baekrin climbed onto the bed.
"......?"
And without hesitation,
plopped down straddling my thighs,
sitting spread-legged atop them.
We faced each other, stacked sitting.
"Hey... hold on."
I panicked, leaning back.
"Shut up. Training time."
No escape.
Wall at my back, her tits filling my view ahead.
Chests and bellies nearly touching.
Her swelling breasts with each breath teased my ribcage.
"Bitch... if you knew what happened on the ship......"
"Doesn't matter. You're just storage."
Baekrin ignored, wiggling her hips to settle.
Squish, squish.
Her heavy, soft ass pressed into the deep inner thighs,
right on the most dangerous, sensitive spot.
Warmth through thin fabric.
And a faint, tickling flesh scent at my nose.
Twitch.
"......Ah."
Against my will, blood rushed below.
The thickening bulge asserted itself between her ass cheeks.
Whatever,
"......"
Baekrin held her breath,
slipping straight into her trance.
A moment later, Baekrin opened her eyes.
"......Yeah, this is most efficient."
"......Fucking bitch."
Suits you.
Treating me like a mana battery,
stuffing her dantian full.
Not that I hated it entirely,
but the real issue was elsewhere.
My cock, crushed under her ass in this position,
was rock-hard, on the verge of exploding.
And her subtle hip shifts ground it unintentionally.
My thighs trembled holding back orgasm.
She felt it too.
My rock-hard dick wedged in her ass crack.
"......Again?"
She narrowed her eyes, meeting mine.
That gaze pissed me off,
"Again my ass, you bitch."
I growled through gritted teeth.
"Told you it's involuntary. Healthy guy reacts normal."
"......"
"So get off. Go."
I nodded at the door.
"And come back later."
"Why."
"Gotta drain it."
I said shamelessly.
She wouldn't fuck anyway,
and we'd seen all there was to see—no point in pretense.
"You gonna watch me jerk off?
Or sniff night-bloom scent in this tiny room?"
"......Night-bloom?"
"Cum, you savage bitch.
Stinks like hell, you'll puke.
If you don't wanna ruin your appetite, get out for 30 minutes." Go, quick.
I need to wank.
But.
"......Hm."
The bitch didn't budge.
Instead of leaving, she leaned forward, face close to mine.
"Hey, what're you......"
"Why should I? My money rented this room."
Her lip curled in a strange smirk.
A seductive yet eerie smile I'd never seen.
And,
"......!"
Her hand shifted from my thigh,
fingertip poking the bulge tenting my pants.
"Lemme see."
"......What?"
Baekrin's eyes gleamed.
"You always said it—handsome, big."
"W-Well, yeah?"
"Gotta check."
She brought her lips to my ear,
whispering huskily.
"Strip."
"Lemme see it."
"That glorious cock of yours."