Repetitive Labor
The dirt pile sat right in the middle of a swamp.
The swamp stretched before my eyes.
At first I had taken it for nothing more than wet soil, yet the sparse clumps of grass and the way the mud pooled made it unmistakable: this was a true swamp, the kind I had only ever seen in documentaries.
“Mmph!”
I forced my startled heart to settle.
I had nearly stepped in barefoot.
Gagged and with my hands cuffed behind my back, a single misstep would have left me to drown where I fell.
Everything I knew about swamps told me they were bottomless mires no one could climb out of alone.
Like someone freezing an instant before planting a foot on a landmine, I stood rooted in place and stared at the heap of earth ahead.
Malicious, one might call it.
The guards had almost certainly dumped the dirt there on purpose, just to make the inmates suffer more.
Given the cruelty they had already shown us, the idea was entirely plausible.
In the end, the labor meant crossing the swamp in front of me.
Wait… then this swamp.
Had they left a way for people to pass?
“Nngh… mmph.”
I carefully perched my hips on a firm patch and eased one foot into the mire.
The thick mud closed around my ankle like a living restraint.
Even sitting there with my foot submerged, I could not feel the bottom.
Going in myself was still too great a risk—a gamble with my life.
In a situation where I could not even be sure whether the guards had arranged this trap, better to fetch a comrade and report the danger than to blunder into it alone.
I rose and turned back toward the others.
A sharp gaze met mine.
“What are you doing over there?”
It was Leviathan.
He had appeared without my noticing. Seeing my foot still in the swamp, he let out a long sigh, then wordlessly seized my shoulder.
“Here, A713. Over there—beside the dirt pile. There’s a narrow path. See it?”
“Mmph. Hngh.”
“Right. You can’t walk through this swamp anyway. The deepest spot only comes up to my waist, so it isn’t that dangerous, but you can’t haul a cart through it. Use that path. Understood?”
“Mmph. Peuph.”
“Good. Stop wasting time on nonsense and get to work!”
—Smack!
“Hngh!”
A final slap landed on my backside.
I had no idea why I needed to be hit, yet the careful explanation left me feeling lighter all the same.
Grateful for even that small consideration, I confirmed the path he had pointed out and ran toward Ye-jin.
Fortunately, Leviathan followed without further incident.
“Mmph.”
“…Haa. Haa.”
When I reached her, Ye-jin—still shoveling—caught my head gesture at once.
We had already agreed on signals; even without words we understood each other.
After a few more thrusts that shoved the gathered earth into the hole, she took the cart she had ready and followed me.
The distance between the pit and the dirt pile was roughly three hundred meters—far enough to feel long, close enough to feel short, an awkward middle ground.
A low hill and a stretch of trees lay between, making it impossible to keep each other in sight.
“Hoo.”
We arrived after the long walk. Ye-jin eyed the heap of earth and let out a soft sigh.
There was no time to hesitate.
The slightest drop in vigilance could bring Leviathan down on us with punishment; even a casual stretch was a luxury we could not risk.
“Hngh! Hoo. Hngh! Hoo.”
Hands locked together in the folding cuffs, Ye-jin began to dig.
With no space between her wrists the motion looked painfully awkward, and the dirt—baked hard by days of sun—yielded only small loads with each scoop.
Was there any way I could help even a little?
There was nothing. Both of my hands were cuffed behind my back; any attempt would only get in her way.
All I could do was turn the cart so she could load it more easily.
“Hngh! Hoo. Hngh! Hoo—”
I shifted the cart into a better angle. Ye-jin nodded, seeming satisfied, and kept shoveling until the cart was half full.
Her strong physique made short work of it; only a few minutes had passed.
“….”
Once enough dirt was loaded, she came over and clipped the cart’s ring onto the chain of my cuffs.
Then she scanned the surroundings. Finding no one nearby, she spoke in a low voice.
“It’ll be hard on your arms. While you’re gone I’ll loosen the dirt, so don’t rush back. Be careful—if you twist a joint it’ll only get worse.”
“Mmph.”
Risking discovery to give me that advice, she helped me settle into a posture that would let me pull a little more comfortably.
I leaned forward and hauled.
“Nngh…!”
Only then did I understand why she had filled the cart only halfway.
A full load would have been beyond me—especially with the hill in the middle. Her choice was a genuine mercy.
“Heu… eugh!”
I inched forward.
As the two large wheels began to turn, inertia slowly built and I managed to walk.
“Heu—hngh. Mmph.”
The weight hung entirely from the chain between my wrists. Pain flared through them at once.
I clenched the hands trapped inside the cuffs; every pull sent a deep ache into my shoulders.
I had not even covered a few dozen meters, yet the ordeal still ahead already filled me with dread.
I kept pulling.
Ye-jin had told me not to overdo it, but while everyone else was shoveling without pause I had to give everything I could.
Remembering the last labor detail… there was not a single moment to spare.
Leviathan had set the deadline at dinner.
We were on a clock.
Fail to finish by then and punishment was almost certain—absurd Demeanor Penalty Points like last time, extra torture sessions, or, worst of all, immediate selection for execution.
I wanted to believe they would not go that far.
But this was Prison Island.
A guard’s word was law to every inmate.
“Hngh. Hngh.”
At the steep hill section I forced my pace.
If I slowed here the struggle would only lengthen; I might not crest it at all.
I threw my weight into the pull, dragged my feet forward, and somehow kept the cart moving.
At last the top came into view.
Then came the descent—bracing against the cart’s weight with my whole body, easing it down step by careful step.
Neither climb nor descent was easy.
No matter how carefully I moved, the strain on my arms only grew worse.
I hauled the loaded cart all the way to Jae-hee and Seo-ah. They came running the moment they saw me.
“Hngh…! Mmph!”
I shook my head hard, warning them off.
The pits still needed filling; the dirt had to be dumped right beside them.
“….”
Seo-ah understood and held Jae-hee back.
Together they scraped nearby earth into the holes and packed it down, racing to finish even a little faster.
“Peuugh. Mmph.”
I parked the cart beside them and finally straightened my bent back.
In the same moment Seo-ah and Jae-hee tipped the cart and shoveled the dirt out.
The work was over in seconds—meant to free me to return at once, yet it also erased whatever rest I might have stolen.
In this place, resting alone would have been absurd anyway.
A flicker of regret rose and I banished it.
The instant Jae-hee re-hooked the empty cart to my cuffs I set off again toward Ye-jin.
The return trip, cart empty, took only minutes even with the hill and the trees.
When I reached the dirt pile, a second cart stood waiting.
Beside it Leviathan was thrashing Ye-jin while he spoke.
Why was she being beaten?
“There’s a round-trip time to keep! If you only load a little dirt, how are they supposed to work over there?”
Ah… because of me.
Even while I was delivering the half-load to Jae-hee and Seo-ah I had felt the same dread: at this rate we would never finish.
The amount I had brought would vanish into the pits with only a few shovelfuls.
A full cart might have been different, but factoring in the round trips and the time Ye-jin needed to fill each load, the inefficiency was glaring.
This would never do.
Anxiety that we could not finish by evening was already knotting my stomach when the scene before me suddenly made perfect sense.
“You’re back, A713?”
“Mmph!”
“A trip to the detention center and already your discipline has gone soft…. Slowest during training earlier, and now hauling dirt without even half-filling the cart… I’m disappointed.”
“Mmph-mmph-peuugh!”
Leviathan wore a look of genuine regret.
Through the gag I could only mumble apologies.
“To make sure you work hard from now on, I’ve prepared a second cart. And I’ve ordered A691 here to fill every load to the brim. If you move with empty space left in the cart, each time you’re caught you’ll receive ten lashes. Understood?”
“Mmph!”
“And this is for the slacking just now.”
“Eugh!”
What he held out was a clamp—an SM toy with rubber-padded jaws.
It would sting, but not savagely.
Even so, humiliation bloomed at the sight of so light a punishment tool.
—Jingle.
A bell hung from the clamp.
Its sound was loud, a constant jingle that would torment my ears.
Worse, every sway of my chest would announce that I was here, struggling, forced to ring a little bell like a toy. Shame rose hot and sudden.
Only the guards and the other inmates would see it, yet the memory of the video-sales talk from counseling flooded back and left me burning with embarrassment.
Of course I had no right to refuse.
Leviathan yanked the prison uniform open, freed my breasts, and fastened the clamps to the tips of my nipples.
The piercings were still in place; constant stimulation had already left the nipples swollen and tender. The added bite of the clamps sent pain and arousal surging together.
“My, my. Impressive. How excited must you be for them to harden this fast?”
“Nngh… mmph!”
He hooked a finger through each piercing and tugged, then even after the clamps were set he flicked the protruding flesh, heaping on the humiliation.
A moment later the horsehair whip cracked across my backside.
—Smack!
“Keuh!”
“Move! The cart’s full—leave at once.”
“Mmph!”
I swallowed the stinging heat of the blow into the gag and forced my legs to walk again.
No rest, not even a second.
I still had no idea how many more trips remained; I simply walked to fill the quota I had been given.
“Keuh…!”
The weight was crushing.
Earlier, sheer will and endurance had been enough to keep the half-load moving.
Now I had to wring every scrap of strength from my body just to inch forward.
One wheel. Then the other.
I prayed the cart would keep rolling and poured everything I had into the pull.
The hill arrived.
At first my feet nearly slipped; the load refused to climb.
Then I caught Leviathan’s approaching gaze and the fear in it wrung strength from nowhere. Somehow I dragged the cart over the crest.
It was a low rise; I reached the top before my legs gave out, and on the descent I managed—barely—to keep the weight under control.
By the time I reached my comrades again, Leviathan was already waiting with fresh punishment.
—Smack!
“Keuh!”
“Spilling dirt like that! Keep your balance and pay attention!”
“Hngh!”
—Smack! Smack!!
“Peuugh!”
The lashes left my backside blazing.
He stopped short of the full ten strokes.
Whether that deserved gratitude I could not say, yet a thin thread of relief still ran through me.
The labor, however, had only just begun.
Jae-hee and Seo-ah emptied the cart once more.
I took the empty frame and started back toward Ye-jin without a moment’s pause.
Any hesitation, any lag, and Leviathan would be on me with the whip again.
The sting was still fresh; the terror of more Demeanor Penalty Points drove my feet forward.
This time he did not follow—probably staying to watch Jae-hee and Seo-ah.
I returned alone to the dirt pile.
There Ye-jin waited, face bitter, still shoveling, and beside her stood a cart she had already filled nearly to the brim.
“Hoo….”