Chapter 73
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Survivor
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For starters, this creepy bald bastard was total fodder.
"Aura, you say?"
At Baekrin's question, the guy couldn't even respond.
He just gaped vacantly, staring back and forth between his staff and her.
"Th-this can't be..."
"What's with this rotten pollack-looking fucker."
I strode up and slammed my foot right into his solar plexus.
Thud!
"Guhk?!"
He flew back satisfyingly.
His arms were skin and bone, nothing but sticks, so when he lost his grip on the staff, he tumbled across the floor.
He'd been posing like he had something going on, but his physical stats were about on par with Noy's.
"You fucking prick, why'd you come at us to kill? Who the hell are you people?"
I stomped down on his gut like I was kicking a soccer ball, no mercy.
Aura-less untouchable peasant slave fodder, meet my full-force soccer kicks.
Whack! Whack!
"Gaaah! Ugh! Heuk!"
"Talk, huh? Who the fuck are you guys?"
I kept stomping until he was foaming at the mouth and curling up.
I had no idea what these guys were doing here.
Sure, we were the intruders barging into someone else's place,
rat bastards sneaking in for treasure, that much was true.
But charging in yelling "Kill them!" out of nowhere? That screamed low-quality trash.
Guys with guilty consciences always overreact.
"Hoo..."
I caught my breath and hauled him up by the collar.
His eyes were glazed over as he panted. I glanced at Baekrin and said,
"Go inside first, check if there's anything valuable."
"...And you?"
"Gonna pump this guy for info. See what they're up to."
She nodded at my words.
"Got it. Don't go far."
"Yeah. I'll be right here."
She slipped into the stone door they'd burst out from.
I could leave the looting to her like this.
"Alright, baldy."
I propped him against the wall and dangled my bloodied dagger in front of his eyes.
"From now on, you answer my questions quick and straight. Got it?"
"..."
"Depending on how you answer, I might let you go nice and easy. Or I might show you something real spicy."
But the guy wasn't even registering my words.
Just staring blankly into space,
"...It can't be..."
"What?"
"Her magic... is absolute... so why... aura..."
He was gone.
Whose magic didn't work or whatever.
Cognitive dissonance or some shit, he was just mumbling nonsense to himself.
"Yeah, yeah. Let me snap you out of it."
I pressed the dagger tip to his right pinky toe.
"See, I spent a whole month in this shithole that taught me a thing or two."
The butcher boys. Those torture techs.
Thinking back on what they did still makes my balls ache.
But I picked up some skills too.
Those slick bastards really knew their stuff.
Anyone rolling in there for a month comes out a specialist in the mysteries of the human body.
"Where to slice for minimal blood but maximum screams."
Slice.
"Gaaaaah!!"
"Learned it the hard way, body and all."
The agony of bone and flesh separating ripped a scream from his throat.
I didn't stop, sliding the tip to the tendon on his foot next.
No fancy tools like in that camp,
no crazy bitch cooing "Aw, does it hurt?" while prodding the wounds.
So I had to control it.
Too hard and he'd shock out. Nice and easy, bit by bit.
Slice. Stab.
"Talk. Who are you."
"Heuk... why... her..."
"Your mom's cunt, who the fuck you talking to?"
This time a finger. Then the inner thigh.
Starting far from the heart, carving flesh like filleting.
"Gaaak! Aak!"
He thrashed, but couldn't break my grip.
The air reeked of blood.
And I kept going, variety pack.
Jam the tip under his nails.
Nerve clusters. Best pain-to-effort ratio.
Then shave thin slices from his earlobe,
and scrape the blade down his shinbone for that extra crunch.
Nothing lethal anywhere.
Just spots that make you wish for death.
And yet.
"Can't... understand... kuhk..."
This tough bastard wouldn't crack.
Or maybe no brains left to talk.
Mid-torture, still yapping about aura. Fuse blown clean off.
"...Fuck, this is frustrating."
Irritation boiled over. I jammed the knife under his jaw.
"Last chance. Who the hell are you people."
His fading eyes rolled painfully to meet mine.
Foam and blood at his lips,
"...Flames..."
"What?"
"Great... flames... will burn..."
Thud.
His head lolled limp.
Pupils dilated, heart stopped.
Exsanguination. Shock.
"..."
I stared blankly at the corpse. Croaked in the end.
Real mystery what these fucks were. What they were doing here.
Why holed up in this backwater trying to kill us. Where from, who's backing them...
Not one scrap of useful info.
"...Fuckin' mood-ruiner."
I irritably wiped the blood off my dagger on his robe.
What can ya do. I did my best.
His fault for being a fragile bitch.
Then footsteps from inside.
"...Dead?"
Baekrin stepped out from the stone door.
She glanced at the minced bald guy sprawled before me and asked flatly.
"Yeah. Clammed up and died."
I stood, stretching my back, and asked,
"So, inside? Anything valuable?"
"...Kinda?"
She shrugged.
Empty hands, so nothing she bothered carrying out.
"Kinda? What’s that mean."
"Here."
She jerked her chin toward the open stone door behind her.
"Come see."
.....
Inside was way bigger than expected.
Not some widened burrow,
but a massive space renovated for multiple people to live in.
But what hit my eyes first wasn't the underground catacomb layout.
"...Ha, fuck."
The smell assaulting me, one I hadn't sniffed in ages.
Sweet-rotten fruit, stale sweat, fishy cum all mixed.
Smell memory hits hard, dragging up old experiences and emotions.
Omegaverse flashback CGs sliding through my head already.
Back on the central continent, when Sharl was still that duke's bastard pup.
The viper's warehouse,
and the scorpion's hideout.
I drifted, mesmerized, to the corner sacks like rice bags.
I knew what they were.
Stab.
I plunged the dagger into the side without hesitation.
Rough cloth tore, and from the gap.
Shhhh...
Like a burst hourglass, fine red powder poured onto the floor.
"...Bingo, fuck."
Paradise powder.
Suddenly, the scorpion's dying bullshit echoed.
[But soon, this rotten world will flip too.]
[Not just Bellua here. Flames are already kindling in two other kingdoms.]
One of those two had to be here, huh.
"Goddamn... trying to start a new life, and this shit clings like a curse."
I scowled, kicking the scattered red powder.
Long time no see, and it still pissed me off to my core, head throbbing.
How much this crap fucked my life.
Framed and jailed unjustly,
escaped and slapped with a 300-gold bounty,
forced to flee across the sea to this far-off land. Prime culprit.
And now, after slave camp and a month of torture,
fresh start earning coin, and boom, face to face again?
Fucking cursed fate.
"Haa..."
Halt Breaker. What'd I do wrong.
Deep sigh,
[Kking, kyung! Thud, thud.]
...What’s that beast noise.
The sound came from a half-open iron door.
Thick padlock sliced clean off, rolling on the floor...
I glanced at Baekrin.
"You check in there?"
"Yeah."
"If I'm right... like the old one?"
She'd been in that scorpion's dungeon too. She'd remember.
"Yep."
She nodded indifferently. Her calm made me sigh even deeper, gut-sinking.
"Fine... gotta check it out."
I gripped my dagger tighter and eased into the iron door.
And,
"...Figures."
My gut feeling nailed it, shitty scene unfolding.
Eye-watering stench. Multiple cages.
And junkies crawling the floor, doped out.
"Heh... uhehe..."
A few women with unfocused eyes pawing the air.
Two skeletal men scraping the walls.
And kids in the corner, huddled shaking, bigger than Noy.
Not full-on skinned or skewered gore show,
but far from fine.
Men had bent fingers,
joints popped out grotesquely swollen, deliberately snapped and reset sloppy.
Women with torn mouths or slits stitched,
nipples carved off with wax caked in.
Limbs intact at least, not cleanly amputated,
just twisted and mangled like toys.
"...Jeez."
And in another room, three kids huddled.
One already dead.
Skin blue-black, gone a while.
"Water... smack, smack..."
The surviving boy and girl clung to the corpse.
Starved to cannibalism? Doped insane? Both, probably. Gaunt, pupils milky.
They grinned blankly, gnawing rotting calf meat.
What can ya say, just.
"Ruins the mood."
"...Yeah."
Like viewing an unpleasant painting, appetite gone.
Baekrin beside me just stone-faced, listening to the chewing.
Nausea rising when,
that eerie sound from the deepest cell again.
Kking! Kyung!
I turned,
"Whoa... fuck."
I'd seen a lot in life, but this was a first.
Deepest room. Not humans, but two furry beasts entangled.
Dog-heads on shrunken human bodies, meter-tall dwarf monsters.
They swarmed a limp naked woman front and back,
frantically thrusting into mouth and slit.
2-on-1. Mystery dwarves and one human woman threesome.
"...What're those furry midgets."
"Kobolds."
Baekrin frowned, answering.
"...Ah."
Right, the old man and her hunted those for pocket money while I spun in the camp chicken coop.
But why caged here, banging humans.
Bred? Breeding experiments?
Either way, eye-searing.
"Kyung! Grrr..."
They sensed us, heads turning from their frenzy, yellow drool dripping jaws, gleaming eyes.
"Can I kill those?"
"...Was gonna ask you and the old man."
"Dunno. Old man probably..."
Stab. Stab.
"Said kill."
I pierced both napes, cutting throats.
No weapons, just claws,
and even fodder like me doesn't get scratched by that.
I toed the kobold corpses, shook off my dagger.
"...Killed 'em without asking."
"Monsters. No talk, no point capturing."
"Hm... true..."
"It's fine. I know the old man long enough. This works."
She stared, then nodded faintly.
"...Wanted to kill quick too."
"Yeah, yeah. Loyal slave reads master's mind, dirties hands for me."
I chuckled, shrugging.
Anyway, those beasts were mid-act, so rage-kill justified.
But the humans? Needed discussion.
What to do.
Back with that damn duke's threat, had to erase all traces, so killed and burned.
Beat and all, mercy kill sorta.
Spawned a retard daughter as karma?
Ideally, these hopeless dopers all to the afterlife,
but situation different now.
We stumbled in by chance, they attacked so we killed, found this mess.
Can't rashly decide or act.
Here, old man's world-weary wisdom trumps us idiots.
Ptoo.
I spat on the floor, looking around.
"Anyway, anything else valuable besides this?"
"Yeah. Piled in one spot."
"Good. Leave these, grab loot and head back..."
Call Kain or whatever, I was saying when.
"Wait."
Baekrin cut me off.
"One more."
"...?"
I frowned, scanning the cells again.
Just the junkie victims and corpses visible.
"Not here, where you stacked the loot."
"...Ah, yeah? Another thug buddy inside?"
She subdued him maybe.
Excited for round two torture,
"Nah. Tied up."
She shook her head.
"Dying, but sane human."
Pre-bound means not with their gang.
Wonder why not locked with the rest.
"Let's go."
Curiosity piqued, I followed her.
.....
Out the cells,
across the living space to the opposite corner.
Missed it before: another small stone door.
Creeeak.
Baekrin pushed it open, revealing inside.
"What room's this."
Hoped for treasure vault,
but messy lab vibe.
Walls plastered with parchment scribbled in unknown script,
desk cluttered with mystery tools and vials.
And in one corner.
"...?"
Definitely out of place.
Man chained by arms to the wall, hanging.
Head down, face hidden, but his clothes.
"...Empire knight?"
Obvious at a glance.
Same armor design as those prowling the capital hunting the princess.
Just the plate that should gleam silver was shattered, dented, scrap-worthy.
Seams torn, pale flesh exposed,
greaves gone, pretty pathetic.
And,
"That Loengrin crest or whatever?"
Big shield with eagle-or-swan spreading wings.
Exact emblem I burned at the campsite.
Perched precariously on his shoulder.
That house, of all... coincidence?
I approached cautiously, checking him.
"Just... dead?"
"Still alive."
Up close, worse shape.
Cheeks sunken like a skull, lips cracked and twisted like dry earth.
Mummy-lite. Some energy drain curse?
How long starved to this.
And his lower half.
"...Chopped."
Both ankles gone.
Severed clean below, cauterized with fire,
but pus stench sour and foul stabbed my nose.
"...Tch."
Living with one-legged mom taught me.
That's rot from inside, untreated.
Dunno how long here, but...
Starve, dehydrate, sepsis.
Whatever, dying soon.
Then,
"Help... me..."
The "dead" man's lips twitched faintly.
Half-lidded eyes fixed on me,
body failing, life fading clear.
"..."
But not zoned out like the cell trash.
Clear mind holding through pain.
[Dying, but sane human.]
Baekrin nailed it.
"...Survivor."
By my standards, a live human.
Anyway.
...What to do with this one.