The Footage of Hayoung's Re-Brainwashing
After ending the call with the re-brainwashed Lee Hayoung, I returned to the annex. The moment I arrived, I asked Lee Heeyeon, my No.1 slave who came to greet me, if there was a USB file she'd received from Master.
"Yes, Master♥ If it's the file from the Savior's side, I have it."
A USB file sent from the Savior's side. It contained the process of Lee Hayoung abandoning Master and siding with the Savior. I'd agreed to meet her in three days, so I figured I could watch how she changed during that time.
"Bring it and play it. How long is it?"
"Hmm~ I think I need to check."
"Bring it first."
"Yes♥"
The slave girl quickly fetched the USB and checked the video length. She turned to me with a troubled expression.
"Umm. It's really long. Fourteen hours."
Fourteen hours. That was actually on the shorter side. It had compressed two months of Lee Hayoung falling to the Savior into fourteen hours, so it could be considered brief.
"Play it. I have plenty of time to watch."
"Yes."
The meeting with Lee Hayoung was in three days. Fourteen hours was more than enough. I could think of it as binge-watching a drama—no big deal. Above all, it was footage of Lee Hayoung, whom I'd once loved most, being retrained, so it might get me unexpectedly aroused at some points.
-Flash! While I was sorting my thoughts, the video started playing. It began with the Savior's first face-to-face meeting with Lee Hayoung. The Savior, with his bronze skin, clucked his tongue at the corpse-like, limp Lee Hayoung and spoke.
The Savior said that and showed her videos of women he'd purified. Afterward, Lee Hayoung was suddenly dragged away by a group called the "Choir" and locked in solitary confinement. A few days later, when she reappeared, her state was utterly wretched. Her face was caked with grime from not washing for so long, with massive eye boogers under her eyes. Her hair was matted and tangled from lack of shampooing, making her look like a homeless person, and her sunken eyes had a dead-fish stare, as if her soul had fled.
Lee Hayoung, drooling and desperately begging them not to play "that." I'd been curious what "that" was at the time, but after watching another thirty minutes, I learned what she meant. It was none other than the prayer she had to hear every day in solitary.
"All glory to the great Father. We pledge our body and soul to the Father who saved us. The Father alone is my love, and I swear I can forsake everything for the Father."
A prayer forced upon her twenty-four hours a day, without a single second's break. Even I would go mad hearing that all day in a pitch-black room with no light. The Savior was using intense mental torture to break Master's brainwashing.
'Worth taking note of.'
The Savior's method of undoing Master's brainwashing. I watched the video with interest. About a week into the footage, Lee Hayoung's attitude toward the Savior did a complete 180. When he opened the solitary door, she stared at him blankly with her mouth agape, as if gazing at Master. Soon, the Savior said he'd let her rest and took her out, washing her filthy body, feeding her warm food, and letting her sleep comfortably in his arms.
'That's when it started.'
That was clearly when cracks began forming in Lee Hayoung's mind. Having tasted liberation from solitary's torment, she started depending on the Savior who freed her. When locked back in, she sobbed his name. By the end of another week in confinement, she began reciting the prayer she'd sworn never to utter. The Savior stroked her head as she chanted in his arms, smiling in satisfaction, then led her somewhere.
'Similar to Paradise's system.'
The Savior's subsequent actions resembled Paradise's system. It was a system that gave enormous rewards for certain behaviors, addicting her to them. Only the Savior's method was more destructive and meticulous.
Mountains of delicacies before Lee Hayoung's eyes. Having eaten only garbage in solitary, she devoured the delicious food like a madwoman. Like a possessed beggar, she shoved every dish she could grab down her throat. Her desperate, battle-like eating was pitiful to watch.
After the meal, the Savior introduced her to his kingdom. The first place was his largest enterprise, the Pleasure House, which had a vibe similar to the "Paradise" Master had shown me today. But the Pleasure House was Paradise's upgraded version—bigger, flashier, more decadent, and more insular. In other words, it was Paradise with gambling separated and shortcomings reinforced on a grander scale.
'Dividing floors by rank is interesting.'
The Pleasure House also enforced access restrictions per floor, forming a class society. The first floor was just the desk; the second felt like a basic brothel for D-grade only; the third had themed brothels for C-grade and B-grade. But the fourth was exclusive to A-grade "Choir members." A-grade was on another level from D, C, or B—they had private rooms in the Pleasure House where they could summon lower ranks anytime for their desired sex.
But in the Savior's kingdom, the true apex predators surpassed A-grade: the "Savior's Daughters." To illustrate the hierarchy: D-grade as commoners, C-grade as plebeians, B-grade as wealthy commoners, A-grade as nobles—then the Savior's Daughters were royalty.
I nodded at the Savior's class system, organizing my thoughts.
'Definitely a solid method. Granting privileges by rank to build a desire-based power structure.'
The Savior's system was worth referencing. If I ever built my own faction, I'd mimic it—creating a structure where my slaves devoured each other's desires. The low would envy the high, the high would scorn the low, in an endless cycle of desire. I'd instill values utterly detached from society, ensuring they could never escape being my slaves.
Lost in thought, the Savior took Lee Hayoung to the fifth floor. It was a space for him and his daughters only, the entire floor one massive room.
But amid the opulent decorations, one spot felt oddly out of place: a steel door in the center of the front wall, reminiscent of the solitary entrance that traumatized Lee Hayoung.
The Savior's coercive tone. Lee Hayoung's trembling shoulders. Like livestock to the slaughterhouse, she barely moved her feet. Pushed by the cold gaze from behind, she reached the steel door evoking solitary. Her lips quivered as she placed her hand on the handle.
The Savior's overbearing command. Lee Hayoung couldn't defy her father's order. She turned the handle and opened the door. Before her gaped an abyss-like darkness ready to swallow her.
"Gasp.... Hic...."
Seeing the black-hole darkness triggered her hyperventilation. But the Savior showed no mercy. Knowing her trauma, he still ordered her inside, driving her relentlessly. Unable to resist, Lee Hayoung stepped into the dark.
-Creak! Slam!
The steel door shut the moment she entered. She pounded it, crying "Father!" But the Savior turned and left. The camera now focused on Lee Hayoung trapped inside. Switching to thermal imaging, I swallowed hard watching her in the dark.
'What happens now? What's the ritual he mentioned?'
My heart pounded. How had the Savior undone Master's brainwashing? What was this ritual, and what re-brainwashing awaited Lee Hayoung?
.....
But my anticipation slowly eroded as time passed. Because for the next hour of footage—three days in her time—the Savior did absolutely nothing.