Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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>Translator: Vine
>Chapter: 30
>Chapter Title: Belated Regret
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No sooner had Jiso left than the stout guard, who had been mimicking a child's voice, lowered his tone heavily and pointed at Iris and me.
Knowing that resistance would only be met with violence, I got up and approached the stout guard. Despite my quick compliance, his expression was sour.
“Tsk! This is why slaves need a good beating to come to their senses!”
The stout guard's face flushed a furious red as he pointed a finger at Iris. I glanced back, my heart sinking, and saw Iris sitting there with a blank expression, as if she hadn't heard a thing.
“You damned slave girl!”
The stout guard pulled the whip from his belt and swung it viciously.
Crack, crack!
A vicious sound echoed as the whip struck the prison floor.
‘Gasp…?! Wouldn't that kill someone?’
Seeing a loose stone shatter under the whip's blow, I was horrified and rushed to Iris's side.
“Iris, get up! Let's go, quickly!”
“...?”
Iris just stared at me blankly, her mouth slightly agape. She looked like her soul had left her body. I had to force her to her feet.
“Get up… ugh!”
As I forced her up, she thankfully rose without resistance. It seemed less like she was deliberately ignoring me and more that her mind was so completely gone she couldn't react.
“How dare you! How dare scum like you ignore me?!”
The stout guard, apparently displeased that I was helping Iris, raised his whip and swung it hard.
Craaack!
The whip tore across my back. A searing pain, like having a patch ripped from my skin, was followed by the smell of blood.
“Aargh!”
The stinging pain made me flinch, my shoulders jerking up. I shuddered as if someone had slipped a piece of ice down my shirt as a prank.
“Get up!”
At his harsh roar, I grabbed Iris's wrist and pulled her along. She followed like a puppet with its strings cut.
“Defy me in this place, and you'll regret it!”
The stout guard cracked his whip on the floor a few more times, then spun around and began to walk away with large strides. He was only about a head taller than me, remarkably short for a grown man.
Thanks to that, I could easily keep up even with his long strides. We passed the cells lining both sides of a wide corridor until we reached a fork in the path.
Including the path we were on, there were a total of four. The paths in front and behind were the same as the one we'd just walked, with cells on either side of a central walkway.
To my right, a long corridor stretched out, at the end of which stood a massive door. It looked to be at least ten meters high.
To the left was a shorter path. At its end was a set of about ten stairs. The stout guard headed left.
‘Whoa, is this an elevator?’
At the top of the stairs was a wooden elevator that looked like it might have been used in an old mine. Once the guard, Iris, and I were inside, he pulled a rope on the left.
Creeak, thunk.
The elevator lurched, then slowly began its descent. The surroundings grew dark, as if we were descending into a vertical cave.
Although the elevator had two lanterns, they were dim, as if about to go out.
Screeeech.
Light seeped back into the elevator as we arrived one floor down. The stout guard silently pulled the rope once more.
The elevator began to descend even further.
He pulled the rope a total of three times, which meant we were at least on the fourth basement level.
‘They'll give me a spoon later, right?’
In prison, a spoon could become a fearsome digging tool. Even if this was the tenth basement level, I could escape in no time.
“Alright, this is where you'll be staying from now on.”
The stout guard pointed to a sturdy-looking door. When he opened it, the cramped interior of a cell was revealed. The room was so small that three adult men lying down would fill it completely. There were no windows, not even a lantern, making it suffocatingly dark.
“Get in, quickly!”
His hand twitched as if he was itching to grab his whip again, so I pulled Iris into the tiny cell.
Screech, clank! Thud!
Iris and I were trapped in a darkness so complete we couldn't see an inch in front of our faces.
***
Crack, snap!
“...!”
Noah’s eyes widened as she stared at the practice sword that had suddenly broken. It looked as if she had grabbed both ends and twisted it, sending splinters of wood flying everywhere.
[Well, that broke. Guess it wasn't well-maintained. It snapped more easily than I thought.]
Juliana grumbled, telling her to hurry up and get a new one. Noah stared silently at the broken end before belatedly nodding.
‘Why do I feel so anxious?’
An unsettling feeling bloomed in the pit of her stomach. Noah clenched and unclenched her fists, her gaze drifting to the spot where Rian had been sitting.
It was empty, as if no one had ever been there.
‘He must have left for some other reason. Rian is a busy person.’
She tried to suppress her anxiety and headed for the storage shed where the wooden swords were kept.
[Ugh, gross.]
The first thing she saw upon entering the shed was a dead, palm-sized bug near the entrance. Juliana, who hated bugs, retreated behind Noah and shivered.
Thump, thump, thump!
The broken sword, the dead bug.
Normally, she would have dismissed these things as nothing, but today, everything felt strangely frightening and dreadful. Noah stared down at the insect's corpse, searching her memory.
‘Why am I so anxious? Did something happen that would make me feel this way?’
Though she couldn't recall anything, her anxiety continued to grow. In the end, Noah left the shed without grabbing a new sword.
[Huh? Where are you going? To the bathroom?]
Her heart was pounding as if it would leap out of her throat, and her mind went so blank she couldn't answer Juliana's question. Her brisk walk soon turned into a run.
“Hah, haah…!”
Noah realized it then. When she had last felt this anxiety, this fear.
“Rian! Rian!”
The horrific scene she had once glimpsed through a crack in a door flashed before her eyes.
“Rian!”
The first place she ran to was the kitchen. But only a few children, trimming vegetables, were there.
“Are you looking for Rian?”
>“I saw him. He was carrying something that looked like this and went to his room.”
>“What is that?”
>“I don't know.”
Ignoring the children's conversation, Noah sprinted toward the dorms. The closer she got, the more her anxiety swelled.
“Rian!”
Noah called out his name in a desperate voice as she threw open the door to the dorm. She was greeted only by the sight of cute dolls arranged neatly on the beds.
Her vision blurring, Noah immediately threw open the next door. Rian wasn't in the second or third rooms either.
“Rian, please… you're here, right?”
With a weak, trembling voice and a pained smile, Noah opened the last door.
Creeak.
The door opened slowly. The first thing she saw was Pia, slumped on the floor, clutching her hair.
“Why? Why aren't you saying anything? It's over now, right? Huh? Please answer me. Please, please, please.”
Pia pleaded with her younger brother again and again, desperate for confirmation that she wasn't wrong, but with Doban's magic gone, she heard no reply.
“Pia…?”
At first, Noah didn't recognize her because of her completely blackened hair and dark purple eyes, but she knew the face in an instant.
At the sound of Noah's voice, Pia looked up at her.
“Aah—… Noah.”
Pia got to her feet unsteadily, a crooked grin on her face. Noah found her expression terrifying.
“Listen. I finally saved you all.”
>“What?”
>“I finally banished the hypocrite who was tormenting you, me, and all of us! But my brother… my brother won't answer me. Aah—, could it be that he's finally free of his lingering regrets and has left my side?”
Muttering incomprehensible words, Pia looked like a madwoman. Noah suppressed the urge to flee and spoke.
“Pia, have you seen Rian?”
>“...Rian?”
Pia’s smile vanished in an instant. Her eyes darted around before settling on the floor. Following her gaze, Noah saw a doll lying on the ground.
In the other rooms, the dolls had been placed on the beds. Only in this room was one lying on the floor.
“Why is this on the floor…? Pia, what on earth… what on earth happened in here?”
As Noah asked, her voice trembling uncontrollably, Pia blinked her large eyes slowly and forced her lips into something that resembled a smile.
“I told you already. I banished that damned, trashy hypocrite, Rian.”
>“What…?”
>“You think so too, don't you? Rian is trash. Just a hypocrite pretending to be nice so he can use us.”
A flicker of confusion appeared in Pia’s eyes, which had been vacant and crazed just moments before. Her voice trembled slightly. She spoke compulsively, as if desperate for confirmation.
“Right? That bastard Rian is trash. Trash that should be killed on sight! Having him around us doesn't help at all, right? In fact, it just makes things more painful!”
Pia’s gaze wandered across the floor. It landed on the doll that had been made to look just like her, with the same hairstyle.
“...R-right? That's… that's how it is, right?”
By then, Pia's voice was trembling uncontrollably.