Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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>Translator: Vine
>Chapter: 56
>Chapter Title: So, Who's Being Tortured?
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Now, who’s being tortured?
“Ughhh…”
Thankfully, the old man didn’t seem to be dead. I could hear him groaning. He tried to get up, using the sofa for support.
*Crack.*
“Heuk, huuh…!”
Just from the sound of his voice, I could tell how badly he’d hurt his back.
‘Hmm… he told me to stay seated, so I should probably just stay put, right?’
It was best to remain still in situations like this. But it seemed someone else had a different idea.
*Shhhk.*
A person rose from the old man’s shadow. With a deadpan face, the man approached the groaning old man on the bed and extended a hand, as if to help.
“Ahhh, ugh… D-don’t touch me! Just leave me alone!”
He was in so much pain that he refused even the slightest touch. The old man snapped, pushing away the man who had approached him. As I thought, staying still was the right answer. If I had tried to help, I would’ve been the one getting yelled at.
The man who had approached the elder just stood there, his hand twitching as he watched.
“Hahh, hah-euk!”
I quietly raised my hands and covered my ears. I had no desire to listen to the old man’s groans.
‘Hmm, it was my mistake, so I should probably apologize, right?’
A conscientious thought surfaced, only to sink back down just as quickly.
‘I’ll apologize if he points it out. If he hasn’t noticed yet, it’s not my fault.’
In a gag world, that was the extent of one’s conscience. Spilling one’s sins and receiving forgiveness was a privilege reserved solely for the beautiful.
With my ears covered, I couldn’t hear the old man’s groans. Having nothing else to do, I started observing the patterns on the floor. At first, I just found five ordinary patterns that resembled people.
But at some point, those five patterns began to engage in a lover’s quarrel. I stared blankly at a pattern that seemed to be shouting, “Actually, I’m pregnant,” and another that replied, “…I have something to confess, too. I’m sterile. Apparently, there’s been a problem with my sperm since I was a child.”
‘What a train wreck.’
Just as I was thinking that, I saw the old man finally manage to sit up straight. I subtly lowered my hands from my ears.
“Ughhh…”
The old man groaned, clutching his back.
“Dammit…”
He cursed, then his eyes met mine. His fiercely scrunched face instantly turned red. He seemed embarrassed.
‘He’s quite shy.’
As I thought that, the old man gritted his teeth and gestured to the man standing beside the sofa. The man then produced a palm-sized potion bottle from his coat. It was a healing potion.
The old man immediately uncorked the potion and downed its contents.
“Kuh…”
He tossed the empty bottle to the man, then whipped his head around to glare at me. Feeling a pang of guilt, I slyly averted my gaze.
***
*Grind.*
Bansuk ground his teeth as he stared at Rian, who was sitting on the floor.
‘Of all the moments for the chair to tip over…!’
He was a man who lived and died by his image. It was why he carried a fancy staff and kept a servant hidden in his shadow.
That pride, his very ‘image,’ had been utterly shattered in front of Rian. Bansuk imagined Rian was laughing at him inwardly and the veins around his eyes bulged.
‘I was just going to greet him lightly and send him back, but… this won’t do.’
*I’ll have to properly educate him on what kind of person I am.*
Bansuk smiled wryly and gave a command to the man beside him with a wave of his hand. The man immediately lifted Rian from the floor and slung him over his shoulder.
“Urk…”
Bansuk tried to spring up from the sofa, but a sharp pain in his back made him pause before he slowly rose to his feet. Thanks to the potion, it hurt less than before.
‘Dammit, dammit!’
Fixing his posture now wouldn’t erase the groan that had already escaped his lips. Just then, the man came over and handed him the staff that had fallen on the floor.
The ornate staff was usually an accessory that displayed his wealth and confidence, but today, it would serve its original purpose.
*Tap, tap.*
He shifted his weight onto the staff and started walking. Bansuk headed toward the hallway connected to the living room. At the end of the hall hung a painting of a basket of apples. He tapped the painting with his staff.
*Creeeak.*
The apple painting swung inward as if it were a door, revealing a pure white corridor.
Following the white corridor, he passed several doors. Bansuk headed for the one at the very end. The man silently moved ahead and opened the door for him.
The inside of the room was also entirely white, with a single iron chair in the center. Leather belts were attached to the armrests and legs of the chair, stained with dried blood.
Directly in front of the chair was a black trolley filled with a gruesome array of torture instruments.
The man carrying Rian immediately tossed him onto the iron chair. He then bound Rian’s wrists and ankles with the attached leather belts.
Bansuk’s lips twisted into a grotesque smile as he looked at Rian.
‘Now you get the situation, don’t you? Well? What kind of despair will you show me? What kind of screams will you let out?’
The man finished tightening the belts and stepped aside. Bansuk swallowed dryly, anticipating the look of terror on Rian’s face.
“Hmm.”
“…?”
Rian was calmly scanning the room, his eyes filled with nothing but curiosity. Faced with a reaction he had never encountered before, Bansuk stared at Rian, speechless.
‘This place must be hard to maintain.’
Rian wasn’t failing to grasp the situation. The dried bloodstains and torture tools gave him a pretty good idea of what was about to happen. He just wasn’t scared.
Don’t children who cry about going to the hospital eventually grow up and go without a second thought? Rian felt something like that.
It wouldn’t hurt much anyway, and he wouldn’t die, so there was no reason to be afraid.
*Grind.*
To Bansuk, that attitude felt like a challenge.
‘He must be too stupid to understand the situation.’
Usually, when he brought a new toy here, he would leave them tied up for a few hours. Watching a slave, bound and alone in an all-white room, slowly succumb to fear was quite an enjoyable pastime.
But that method seemed like it wouldn’t work on Rian at all. He strode forward. The man at his side astutely wheeled the trolley over to Bansuk.
“It seems you still don’t grasp the situation.”
Bansuk deliberately put on a gentle, elderly smile. Rian’s gaze shifted to him.
*Shhk.* Bansuk handed his staff to the man. Thankfully, the potion had worked well, and he no longer felt any pain in his back.
*Clatter.*
From the trolley, he picked up a pair of pliers. They were caked with dried blood. He casually opened and closed them a few times before taking Rian’s bound hand.
Any normal person, no matter how dull, would have realized something was wrong by now and clenched their fist in terror. But Rian offered his hand calmly, as if he had no idea what was about to happen.
‘How long will that attitude last?’
A sneer tugged at Bansuk’s lips as he gripped Rian’s thumbnail with the pliers. His mouth began to twist into a bizarre grin.
The thought of a scream so loud it would make his eardrums ring sent a thrilling shiver down his spine. He licked his dry lips and squeezed.
“Hehehe…”
Just as a cry of unrestrained ecstasy escaped his lips—…
*Pop!*
A cute sound accompanied the removal of the nail.
“…??”
Countless question marks floated in Bansuk’s eyes, which had been contorted in a vile grin.
“……????”
When humans face an incomprehensible situation, their first reaction is denial.
‘Ah, that… right. I must have pulled it wrong.’
Despite the fact that a thumbnail was clearly caught in the pliers, that detail was unimportant to Bansuk, who was currently rejecting reality.
*Tud.*
Bansuk dropped the thumbnail on the floor and gripped the index fingernail with the pliers.
‘This time for sure…!’
*Pop!*
The cute sound, like one from a baby’s shoe, rang out again as the nail was pulled out. But not a single drop of blood splattered, and a perfectly fine nail was still there where the old one had been.
“…?!?!”
Bansuk’s face twisted grotesquely, as if he had just witnessed the impossible.
*Pop, pop! Pop! Poppopoppop!*
“Hah, heok… huuh!”
Unable to accept this reality, Bansuk frantically pulled at Rian’s nails, but the only sound that echoed in the room was his own panting, not Rian’s screams.
Panting from exhaustion, Bansuk looked up and met Rian’s eyes. Rian was looking at him with an expression of pity, like one would watch an old man struggling to collect newspapers in the early morning.
*Clang!*
That look flipped a switch in Bansuk. He threw the pliers to the floor and began rummaging through the trolley like a madman.
‘Don’t… don’t you pity me! How dare you, a mere slave!’
He grabbed a knife with a serrated edge and plunged it into Rian’s thigh.
*Shunk!*
“…! Ha!”
This time, there was no strange sound effect; the blade pierced flesh properly. The metallic scent of blood seemed to soothe the sweat-drenched Bansuk.
‘Now you see what kind of situation you’re in—…’
*FWOOOOSH!*
A fountain of blood erupted from the thigh, as if he had struck a blocked artery.
“Heok…!”
Startled, Bansuk stumbled backward, tripped over his own feet, and fell flat on his butt.
*Craaack!*
“Keoheok?!”
The back he had just injured gave out again, and Bansuk collapsed onto the floor.