Incomplete Sale
A true story from China in 194 BC.
I was no expert on history, but my older sister had often told me myths and historical tales—Prometheus, Andromeda, and the rest—so this was one of the stories that had come up as a natural extension of those.
Back then I had simply filed it away as one more barbaric anecdote from the distant past. Now, more than twenty-two hundred years later, the version that reached me through Jaehee’s lips was another true story—one she herself had lived.
“They said they wanted to see whether a person could actually survive under those conditions… so they bid on me and dragged me off. Then they severed the ligaments in my hands and feet, adjusted my vision so I couldn’t see a thing, ruptured my eardrums, and forced me to swallow a drug that kept me from speaking.”
“…Th-that’s…”
“They told me the whole point was to reenact something that had really happened in China. Lady Qi, I think it was…? Anyway, that person was… god.”
“Why? That already sounds awful—what else did you go through?”
“Yeah… looking around now, it seems like only Nayun knows about that incident. Does anyone else?”
At Jaehee’s question everyone shook their heads.
Everyone except me. Exactly as she had expected, I nodded.
The story of Lady Qi.
Of all the tales my sister had ever told me, it was the one that carried the harshest, most vicious content… and it was true.
When I first learned it was a true story I had been stunned. That was probably why, whenever I spun out fantasies of the worst possible endings, I treated it as something so far removed from reality that it could only exist in daydreams.
And Jaehee had actually lived through it.
Of course the details were different.
“Thankfully Waltz Production stepped in a little and reined them in… Originally they wanted to do it exactly like the old history. Chop off the hands and feet, gouge out the eyeballs, pour molten sulfur into the ears and burn them, cut out the tongue, force the mute-making poison… Well, they pretty much did the last part as written, but even with today’s tech, once you’re in that state recovery is almost impossible, they said.”
“Insane…”
“Anyway, Waltz Production negotiated a compromise. They dialed the intensity down and applied every step under anesthesia. In exchange they extended my auction period, from what I understand.”
“I guess we should call that lucky?”
“…Yeah. The real problem came after that.”
Watching Jaehee’s face darken, I found myself recalling the Lady Qi story again.
The version my sister had told me was only the beginning.
And the reenactment Jaehee had endured was only just starting as well.
“Blind and deaf… I was dumped somewhere. Oh, right—I spent the whole time with a nose hook pulling my nose up. Right before they ruptured my eardrums I heard them say they were going to turn me into a human pig. At the time I thought it was just a figure of speech because they’d forced my nose into a pig-snout shape…”
“And then?”
Jaehee’s voice faltered and stopped.
I already knew what came next; I squeezed my eyes shut.
I had hoped it wasn’t true.
Even if they called it a reenactment, I had believed they couldn’t possibly have carried out the historical event exactly as it was written.
No matter how thoroughly their human rights had been stripped away, they were still people.
Once their contracted term ended they were supposed to reclaim those rights and return to society.
But my hope proved empty.
After a long silence, the story that finally left Jaehee’s mouth was exactly what I had feared.
“I really did spend several days as a human pig. I never knew Prison Island even had a place like that… I was locked in something like an animal pen. At the time I couldn’t see or hear, so I had no idea what it was, but I had to live jammed in among beasts with thick fur. In a place reeking of filth…”
“No way…”
“…I’ve always had a weak stomach, so I couldn’t eat anything. But you know what? Even if your stomach is weak… once you’re thirsty and starving… a person starts craving something. They gave me these weird lumps… and… hhk… uugh…”
“Jaehee, it’s okay. You don’t have to keep talking. No—stop talking…”
“Yeah… hhk… hah. Haa. No, I’m fine. It just… the disgust came flooding back. When I finished the term and came back, Waltz Production was worried about my mental state and gave me almost a month of psychiatric treatment. So talking about it is okay. It’s just… I still don’t know what I ate back then. That’s why… I got a little worked up.”
“Yeah…”
Even as she said it, the aftereffects lingered; Jaehee’s shoulders kept trembling.
Ruia reached out and soothed her.
It was only a hand resting on her forearm, yet Jaehee’s shaking gradually subsided.
“Anyway, Nayun. Mm… that’s what the auction is. I only talked about the extreme end of it, but the other auctions weren’t bad. Especially the person who bid on me right before you arrived—they just used me as a sex doll for two days. Because of the orders I had to stay still like a doll the whole time, but at the end they even cooked me a steak and said I’d worked hard. Leviathan told me they dropped a few million won into my account before they left.”
“Mmph…”
“Right. So it’s a total lottery. Better than a death sentence that guarantees you’ll face the risk of dying, but if your luck is bad you end up with something worse than a death sentence. Still… it’s a shame you never got the explanation and couldn’t set your options… but… well, it’s too late to change it now.”
If I had heard the explanation about the auction when I first signed the contract…
What choice would I have made?
Honestly it would have depended on how the explanation was framed… but I probably would have forbidden it.
Even so, I hadn’t wanted to be handled however someone else pleased.
Prison Island was that kind of place to begin with… yet the life I had originally pictured for myself was one of moderate pain and inescapable surroundings that still delivered sexual pleasure—not this complete stripping of human rights so I could be used like a tool.
That part was clearly Counselor Eunbi’s mistake.
But the me of now… bound so thoroughly I couldn’t even talk with my comrades… even if I brought it up, it was far too late to change anything.
Once you were imprisoned on Prison Island, escaping the conditions you were given was… impossible.
“No. That’s not true.”
Beside me, Yejin cut Jaehee off.
Did she know something?
Ruia nodded as well, agreeing with Yejin.
“That’s right. Like Yejin unnie said, if the explanation wasn’t properly given, you can still change it.”
What was this about?
Seoa asked the question for me.
“Really? So even now Nayun can change it and say she won’t go to the auction?”
“Yeah, that’s right. It’s a little risky, though…”
Yejin and Ruia continued the explanation.
“My alcohol tolerance is way worse than it looks. One single drink and I’m drunk, and I metabolize it so slowly I spend the whole day staggering around completely wasted.”
“Mmph?”
“But when I first arrived on Prison Island, the counselor never asked about my drinking capacity. These days they make you write your personal tolerance into the contract, but back then everything was done through counseling.”
“Same here. When they asked about allergies and things, they also asked about alcohol.”
“Anyway, so I came to Prison Island without that counseling ever happening, and for my first death sentence they decided to ‘help me relax’ by giving me alcohol. I told them I couldn’t drink, but they said there was nothing about it in the counseling notes and forced it down my throat.”
“God… so what happened?”
“…Well, I got so drunk they couldn’t even carry out the death sentence, so it was postponed. Later when they checked the counseling process they found out the counselor assigned to me had screwed up.”
“I see.”
“That’s how I learned it. Any item that becomes an Incomplete Sale during counseling can still be revised later if there’s a reasonable reason and cross-verification confirms the facts. So Nayun’s auction case… if it’s confirmed as the counselor’s mistake, she should still be able to set the options even now.”
“Mmph?”
It was a hopeful story.
If it was possible, I didn’t want to go to the auction.
“But if it turns out you lied, the punishment is severe. From what I know you immediately become a death-sentence candidate or get something equivalent. So you have to be careful… but the counseling recordings and other evidence make the facts clear. Nayun. If you’ve got nothing to hide, once they take the gag out later, tell Leviathan.”
“Mmph.”
My comrades had found me a way.
I bowed my head to them in gratitude.
Above all I was grateful to Yejin, who had even shared her own experience.
The conversation continued for a long time after that.
Things I already knew.
Things we had all lived through.
Sometimes it was a chance to hear new stories about Prison Island, so even though I couldn’t speak I kept my ears open and listened intently.
I had lost track of time when—
“Hmm~”
“Mmph…?”
Beside me Ruia reached out again and touched my piercing.
Was she planning to pick up where she had left off earlier?
A leftover spark of excitement I hadn’t fully felt still lingered, so a small flicker of anticipation rose.
I hoped she would touch me just a little more.
But her touch was different this time.
As if jealous that I had bowed my head to Yejin, she pressed right up against me, blocking the others’ view, and casually toyed with the piercing.
As if she were doing it just to torment me.
“Nngh…. mmph.”
A soft moan slipped out at the teasing.
Apparently the small pain applied to a nipple that still hadn’t fully healed had triggered my innate masochism.
An excited yet strangely lewd feeling.
“Oh my~ Unnie. Is that the Stimulation Spores?”
“Oh no, now that you mention it, quite a bit of time has passed, hasn’t it? We should start getting to sleep.”
“Let’s do that, unnies~. We can finish the stories we didn’t get to later, once we’re back in society. Or I can just get re-imprisoned. Hehe. Anyway, tonight I’ll serve you all a lot, so just say the word if you need anything. Got it?”
“Haa~ All right. I’m counting on you, Ruia.”
The moment the words ended, my comrades lay down.
The cell had always been narrow, and with five of us inside we had no choice but to sleep pressed tightly together.
Still, we were used to small noises and soft moans, so the others fell asleep almost at once.
Especially today, when the physical drain had been severe.
Even I felt that if I closed my eyes I would drop off immediately.
But… sleep was not permitted to me.
“Unnie.”
A few minutes after everyone had fallen asleep.
When the cell was filled with the steady rhythm of breathing, Ruia whispered and brought her face close.
“Hmm~ As expected, Nayun unnie smells the best. Should I call it a real female scent? That always-lewd body odor of yours~ Even though we’re both women, it’s like walking pheromones.”
“Nngh…! Hhk.”
What was she trying to say?
But the important thing was that no matter what she did to me right now, I couldn’t refuse.
Of course I could have woken the others and stopped her.
“What? Trying to wake up the comrades who finally got to sleep? Don’t. They all looked exhausted…. And unnie wants it too, doesn’t she? That face earlier~ I saw it.~”
“Nngh.”
But just as she said, I couldn’t.
Ruia’s words stabbed my conscience without a single error.
Then her hand found the piercing hanging from my breast, hooked a finger through the ring, and gently twisted.
“Mmph…! Mmph!”
“Aww~ Don’t make so much noise. If unnie keeps being loud… I’ll just stop.”
“Nngh…. …!”
“That’s it~ Good girl. Instead, if you stay quiet for me, I’ll let you come at the end. You know, right? Chances like this in prison… are rare. Masturbation forbidden, pure pleasure forbidden. How about it? Isn’t this the best reward?”
“…!”
Exactly as she said. Prison Island was a place where you couldn’t feel pleasure whenever you wanted.
Even when the chance came, it was either forced climax under the brutal conditions of a special death sentence, or rape by a guard.
And even those rapes were extremely rare.
Because the warden of Cell 3 was Leviathan, who avoided sex.
A prison island saturated with pain and physical exhaustion.
Inmates whose masochism was constantly stimulated yet who could never properly feel sexual pleasure.
For them, one of the constant thoughts was the desire to masturbate whenever they wanted.
And for people like that, an opportunity like this?
Honestly it was hard to refuse.
And the timing was terrible.
“Nngh…! Nnh”
“Hm? Unnie~ Don’t tell me it’s really the spores?”
I nodded at her question.
Of all times, the spores chose this moment to torment my nipples with caressing motions.
On top of that, with Ruia twisting the piercing, the caressing sensation spread from inside the nipple itself, doubling the arousal.
In the cramped cell I curled up and leaned my body against Ruia.
With handcuffs on and a gag sealing my mouth, it was my own little gesture asking her to seal my legs as well.
“Good. Unnie, I understand what you mean.”
Fortunately Ruia read my intention and granted the request.
She gently wrapped her own legs around my thighs, then stretched her fingertips and slipped them between my legs.
Soft skin brushed against the wet valley.
And one more whispered temptation at my ear.
“How about it, unnie? Unnie… why don’t you just… become mine?”
She clearly meant right now.
I gave a small nod.
“Hehe. Good~. Then from now on unnie is mine.”
It was the devil’s temptation.