The Trial
“Huh? A688?”
“Seoa.”
“Hey…. You both look like you’re holding up.”
“You’re the one who shouldn’t be saying that. Are you okay?”
The person who entered the detention cell was Kang Seoa.
Inmate A688, the same batch as them—the one who had tried to kill herself mid-execution.
She had endured such vicious torture that she finally bit through her own tongue. Naturally they had assumed she would declare surrender and quit…. Yet here she was. Her expression was far from good, but her appearance still came as a genuine shock.
“I’m fine, Nayoon.”
“Uh… wait. Did I ever tell you my name?”
“I heard it last time. During the execution A691—no, Yejin—called your name. You know mine, right?”
“Yeah… I do. I heard it during the execution too.”
“Come to think of it, this is the first time we’ve actually talked like this.”
“Yeah.”
Both of them were still cuffed, so even a handshake was impossible. Yet simply being able to speak aloud after so many exchanges of skin-writing alone made the bond between them feel tighter.
“So you decided to stay.”
“Mm… I talked everything over with the counselor and the lawyer…. Staying seemed better than leaving…. So that’s what I chose.”
“But if it was bad enough that you tried to kill yourself, wouldn’t leaving be the right call?”
“…Yeah. That’s true, but….”
Seoa’s voice trailed off under Yejin’s question. The way her eyes wavered made it clear the answer was hard to give.
Seeing how strained she looked, Yejin spoke first.
“Whatever. If you decided to stay, then you have to lock that decision in. But like we just saw, suicide isn’t allowed here. If the goal was just to force an early end to the execution, it might be a little useful… but the guards here aren’t pushovers. Next time it probably won’t even work.”
Both Seoa and Nayoon nodded at her words.
They hadn’t seen it themselves and had no memory of it, but the moment they heard she had bitten through her tongue they had simply assumed Seoa was dead.
There had been no other conclusion to reach.
Prison Island was that merciless about human rights; inmates were treated as less than human. Even with recovery facilities and equipment available, they had believed proper intervention would be nearly impossible.
Yet—whether because Alisea Lombe’s reach extended across the entire island or for some other reason—Seoa had come back alive.
And with her re-incarceration already confirmed, the inmates who had witnessed the scene had almost certainly had one truth burned into them: suicide attempts were meaningless.
Just like Nayoon and Yejin themselves right now….
“Anyway, how long are they planning to keep us locked up?”
“No idea…?”
A long time had already passed since Seoa was brought into the detention cell—long enough that it felt like a full day at least.
That was exactly why Nayoon and Yejin knew today would be the day they returned.
No one had brought the usual timed meals, and the water that used to be pushed through the gap under the door like a ration had stopped ages ago.
They weren’t going to leave them here to die, so the longer time stretched, the closer their return drew. Even a half-baked guess was enough to figure that out.
— Clank.
“A691. You will be moved to the courtroom. Come out!”
Just as predicted, not long after—right around the time their throats were burning with thirst—an unfamiliar man opened the detention-cell door and stepped inside.
At his order, Yejin, who had been lying beside them, pushed herself up.
“They call it a trial, but it’s really just the re-entry decision. I’ll go first and wait. See you later.”
“Yeah.”
“Seoa. You hang in there too. See you in the training room.”
“See you later, Yejin.”
“Yeah.”
Even if the trial was nothing more than a formality, it still meant a temporary parting. That faint sense of regret was probably why Yejin left those words behind.
She was led away by the other man and left the detention cell first.
“Seoa. What’s the courtroom like?”
“It’s just the place where they notify you of the execution results and lock in the decision you already made. It’s not a real trial—just a one-sided announcement. You just take it. But….”
“But?”
“I heard that if you fail to complete the execution, they hand down matching punishment. This time I’m not sure… since I stopped the execution with a suicide attempt, I’ll probably get punished… but I don’t know what’ll happen to you and Yejin. This is the first time so many people were dragged to the execution ground at once….”
“I see.”
Seoa, face dark, shared what she knew.
Nayoon told her to try and get some sleep.
Unlike Yejin and herself, who had rested for quite a while in the cell, Seoa had barely slept at all.
Even with the lights on, the place was exhausting enough that eyelids should have closed on their own—yet she refused sleep, and whenever she did drift off she jolted awake from nightmares, calling Nayoon’s name.
The aftereffects of the execution still clung to her heavily.
Why she called that particular name was a mystery, but each time it happened Nayoon soothed her.
Especially when the spores tormented her, Nayoon would bite her nipples to ease the pain. Seoa seemed to like the sensation; even when Yejin offered to help, she specifically asked for Nayoon, making it clear she was leaning on her for something.
“I can’t sleep. Haa…. Or… sorry, Nayoon.”
“Hm?”
“Could you… just suck on my nipples a little? You don’t have to bite. Just… like nursing….”
“…Okay. I’ll help.”
Even long after Yejin had been taken away, no one came for them. Left abandoned, Nayoon urged Seoa even more firmly to rest.
That was when Seoa made the unexpected request.
Nayoon hesitated for a moment.
It wasn’t spore pain, and having someone suck on her nipples while she tried to sleep should have made things harder, not easier… yet Seoa had forced the words out with difficulty.
Could Seoa be the same type as Luia…?
Nayoon herself had little interest in same-sex attraction, so the request left her faintly uneasy—but she wasn’t cold enough to turn her back on a struggling cellmate.
She crawled across the asphalt floor to where Seoa lay offering her chest, used her mouth to pull the prison uniform down, and closed her lips around the exposed tip of a breast.
“Hnn… ah… mmm.”
The moment she gently suckled the nipple, the taste of human skin filled her mouth.
Seoa closed her eyes and let out a long, deep breath.
Whether from arousal or simple relief that the request had been granted, the emotion carried on that breath was pure warmth.
She pressed closer to the girl nursing at her breast.
Nayoon felt Seoa’s face rest against the crown of her head.
Warm breath slid down from her scalp, past her ear, and tickled her cheek—like someone wrapping her in an embrace.
Was this really helping?
But then she heard Seoa’s soft, even breathing as she drifted into sleep, and understood that the act was giving her real comfort.
It was the first peaceful expression she had seen on Seoa’s face since arriving here.
Looking at that face, Nayoon… closed her own eyes as well.
Sleepiness had nothing to do with it.
The warmth in that breath simply felt… like a mother’s arms she had known long ago.
…Nice.
“A713. Trial. Get up.”
“Yes.”
The one who pulled her out of a deep sleep was a man.
When she opened her eyes at his call, the detention-cell door stood open and the same man who had taken Yejin waited beside it.
At his order she rose.
Seoa, lying next to her, stirred at the movement and opened her eyes as well.
“Then… see you in the training room.”
“Yeah. Nayoon… hang in there. And thank you.”
“You hang in there too. I’ll go first, then.”
They comforted each other for choosing the hard road, and Nayoon set off.
The man led; she followed slowly behind him.
The chains of her ankle cuffs scraped along the floor.
Then the iron door of the detention cell slammed shut behind her, and for a moment the sound made her hesitate over the choice that would return her to inmate status.
Even so, she had no intention of changing her mind.
“This way.”
The courtroom was close to the detention cells—right next door, in fact.
Inside, Warden Diabolos sat on the left. On the right sat Attorney Jin Sunghan, the same man who had counseled her earlier.
And at the front stood a man in judge’s robes.
He was a middle-aged man with a kindly face.
Nayoon took her place in the prisoner’s dock set in the center of the courtroom, directly in his line of sight.
“Very well. We shall commence the 238th trial. Inmate A713, Lee Nayoon—is that correct?”
“…Yes. That’s correct.”
“This court will now question Lee Nayoon. You….”
A series of questions followed.
The trial focused far more on interrogation than on any verdict.
Most of the questions concerned the Demeanor Penalty Points that had earned her the execution; the rest covered what she had felt during the process and her personal evaluation of the pain.
At times Attorney Sunghan explained why she ought to be released, while Warden Diabolos—who had observed her daily life—spoke at length on the necessity of re-incarcerating her.
It was all performance, yet she understood why they were spending time this way.
They were laying out angles related to her choice that she herself had never considered.
It felt as though they were carefully steering her away from an impulsive decision while still never forcing her will.
“…On the basis of the foregoing, I, Diabolos, petition for the re-incarceration of A713, Lee Nayoon.”
“…I likewise, on the basis of the foregoing, hope for the release of A713, Lee Nayoon, or her demotion to Grade B. However, taking the inmate’s particular nature into account, I ask that she be granted the freedom to choose her own circumstances.”
Attorney Sunghan especially—knowing full well what her will already was—continued to the very end to explain release and rank adjustment so that she could make the decision carefully.
Whether he truly wished for that outcome was impossible to know, but honestly, there had been plenty of points she would have missed if he had not spoken.
It explained why Yejin’s trial had taken so long.
Once every statement was finished, only the judgment remained.
“Then this judge will ask. A713, Lee Nayoon. Do you desire re-incarceration, or do you desire another choice?”
After the long round of statements, the judge looked at her and asked.
She had to answer with care.
She had entered the courtroom with her mind already made up.
Yet the more explanations she heard, the more she learned of things she had overlooked, and her heart wavered.
If she chose re-incarceration now, she might lose any chance to quit before the remaining term was finished.
Another execution sentence could bring her back to this courtroom, but only after enduring torture severe enough to make death preferable.
And… like Seoa this time.
The thought that she might be branded with a hot iron made execution a path she could not choose lightly.
From the start, an A-Grade prison was that kind of place.
A place where human rights were trampled and every day was stained with sexual abuse and torture under the name of “training.”
In the three weeks she had spent here, she had already broken quite a bit.
A virgin who had been raped twice without being able to resist at all.
The constant spore-stimulation torture.
Her body, covered in the marks of pain, had grown so sensitive that even breathing led to arousal.
She was beginning to fear how much she had changed.
That was why the decision had to be made carefully, with a calm heart.
“…Yes, Your Honor. I… wish for re-incarceration.”
“I will ask once more. If you choose re-incarceration, the decision cannot be reversed. And one more thing. You will receive punishment for the early termination of the execution. The punishment is three days of fasting and a gag, the wearing of Special Handcuffs, and one additional hour of torture. Do you still accept re-incarceration?”
She had barely managed to choose, only for harsher conditions to follow.
She bit her lip at the added penalties.
Even imagining the sentence the judge had just handed down filled her with tension and fear.
She could already picture tomorrow’s self, starving and suffering, full of regret.
Tomorrow’s “her” would clearly resent today’s “her.”
“Yes… I will accept… re-incarceration.”
Yet even after hearing every explanation, her heart did not change.
She had agonized over many things to harden her resolve, but her will was still far too weak to overcome her body’s reactions.
Even as she trembled at the additional punishment, fluid was already gathering between her legs.
Worse, the pain of the edging torture she had once endured came flooding back, followed by the sensation of collapsing under Leviathan’s hands, gasping.
Execution was terrifying… but a special execution… she was afraid, yet she would not necessarily run from it.
And… even a regular execution….
Ahh….
The moment the thought reached that far, she almost climaxed.
She tried not to show it, but her face burned and her womb gave a sharp, throbbing pulse.
“Very well. This court respects your choice. A713.”
The instant the decision was made, the judge no longer used her name.
Addressing her only by inmate number, he struck the gavel three times and confirmed the judgment.
“Leviathan. Come in and take that inmate away.”
At the same moment, Leviathan—who had been waiting—entered at the judge’s command.
He approached, clipped a chain to the ring of the collar around her neck, and yanked her forward the way one handles a prisoner. Then he leaned in close to her face and spoke.
“Brace yourself.”
A sentence with no subject.
Yet somehow the words felt welcome.
Yes. Perhaps she had already adapted a little to Prison Island.
“…Yes, Leviathan-nim.”
The end of the execution.
She was to be dragged back to Cell 3 once more.