The Madman's Performance
Kang Yoonsoo's party ascended to the upper floors of the headquarters.
At the same time, several clan members brought in a firewall made of special material and sealed off the flames below.
Additionally, those carrying staffs arrived and used cold magic to quickly extinguish the fire.
Even though they were villains, their organizational skills were top-notch.
Henrik clicked his tongue in disappointment.
“Looks like they won’t suffer much damage after all.”
The Black Tiger Clan headquarters building was simply large; it had no other notable features.
A sweet yet irritating smoke stung their noses.
“What kind of scent is this? It’s not ordinary tobacco smoke.”
“It’s drugs.”
Quite a few clan members were smoking drugs even amid the fire.
A man who had been rolling and smoking dried leaves approached them.
“Hey! You guys just came up from the basement, right?”
Kang Yoonsoo’s party stopped.
Because their faces were covered by masks and they bore Black Tiger tattoos, the man didn’t seem to recognize them.
“You look like low-ranking members. What happened down there? How did the fire start?”
“I was near the gas chamber. Seems some idiot was smoking and a spark flew.”
When Kang Yoonsoo answered, the man shrugged.
“Is that so? Well, it’s not my problem anyway. They’ll just cut off a few heads and be done with it. More importantly, something pretty entertaining is happening right now. Let’s head to the central hall.”
“Sure.”
Kang Yoonsoo’s party followed the man.
The central hall was filled with glittering chandeliers and thick drug smoke.
It was fortunate they wore masks; otherwise, breathing would have been difficult.
“Assassination request on Count Amokan’s family! Thirty gold coins per person this time. Includes the newborn! It’s an easy job.”
“Anyone fast on their feet? I’m thinking of stealing the Okanic family’s necklace tonight! If it goes well, I might even get to lick the widow’s ass. Heh heh heh!”
The clan members gathered in groups, plotting all sorts of crimes.
The hall was completely sealed off from the outside, not a single ray of sunlight entering.
Beyond the windows, the wasteland scenery faintly visible.
Clearly, this place was far from any settlements.
“Sit here. Want a smoke?”
The man offered a rolled cigarette made of dried leaves.
Been a while.
Kang Yoonsoo stared at the drug before lifting the edge of his handkerchief toward his mouth.
“What are you doing right now?”
Shanette snatched the cigarette away in alarm.
Kang Yoonsoo looked at her with calm eyes.
“Why.”
“You don’t even smoke normally. Why would you suddenly try drugs?”
“To clear my head.”
“You’ll get addicted! What will you do if you can’t live without them?”
Shanette furrowed her brows, her expression angry.
Kang Yoonsoo spoke indifferently.
“I’ve quit drugs just fine before.”
“Says the man who downs alcohol every meal.”
Henrik also scolded him.
The man chuckled.
“You can’t quit drinking but you’re confident you can quit drugs? You’re insane.”
“Quitting alcohol is much harder.”
“Why?”
“When drug withdrawal hits, you just get a headache. But with alcohol, the headache comes right after drinking. That’s why quitting drinking is harder for me.”
“Hmm. That’s not an answer an ordinary person could give.”
The man looked at Kang Yoonsoo with interest.
Just then, cheers erupted from the center of the hall.
The man clapped his hands as if he had been waiting for this.
“It’s started!”
A masked man dragged a tall woman onto the stage.
The woman had shackles around her neck, but her eyes remained defiant.
“She’s a member of the White Lion Clan. She infiltrated us disguised as one of our own to steal information. Five of our clan members died because of her.”
“What are they planning to do on stage?”
“You’ll see.”
The Black Tiger Clan members hurled vulgar jeers at the woman on stage.
Along with unimaginable curses, food scraps and bottles were thrown at her.
Yet the woman endured the jeers with remarkable composure.
“Please pay attention. A performance you could never witness ‘outside’ is about to begin!”
The masked man spoke in a playful, clownish voice.
“Living is suffering for us. Everyone’s struggling. Killing people, stealing things—it hurts the heart, the head, the body. But do you all know this? We have body parts that can never feel pain.”
The man rolled up his sleeve and pinched his elbow.
“Look at this. The flesh on the elbow doesn’t feel any pain even when pinched. Hmm. Maybe it would hurt if you stabbed it with a knife. Ah, this example would be better. You don’t feel pain when cutting your nails, right?”
The masked man had an oddly captivating presence.
“But what if we could make those body parts feel pain? What if you felt agony as if your flesh were being torn every time a nail was cut? Doesn’t it sound thrilling just thinking about it?”
The masked man took out a small gem from his pocket.
The crimson gem glowed like a lamp.
“This is a magic stone that can control a person’s pain. It’s very expensive and rare. With this, we can concentrate this woman’s pain points into one area.”
“Pain points? What does that mean?”
When a clan member shouted, the man replied with a grin.
“It means we can make one body part extremely sensitive and painful.”
The clan members’ excited murmurs grew louder.
This was the first time they had seen such a novel method of torture.
“Which part should we make hurt? Should we concentrate the pain points on her soles so she can never walk again? Or on her eyelids so she experiences hell every time she blinks? Which part do you all want?”
Excited shouts filled the hall.
Every vulgar suggestion that would shame the woman was voiced.
“Everyone here… is completely insane.”
Shanette looked at Kang Yoonsoo with a desperate expression.
She wanted to rush onto the stage and save the woman immediately.
However, Kang Yoonsoo merely watched the stage with indifferent eyes.
“Now, now. Everyone calm down. There are many good suggestions, but things like the chest or buttocks are too common. We’ve brought this rare magic stone for once—wouldn’t it be boring to use it for such ordinary torture?”
The masked man glanced around with a smile, then pulled out a pair of iron scissors from his pocket.
The quick-witted clan members cheered so loudly that veins bulged on their necks.
“Hair! The body part to concentrate the pain points on is hair!”
The masked man stroked the woman’s long hair.
“What if you felt pain when cutting hair? Every single strand being cut would hurt like death. To put it in perspective, it would be like having your fingers severed. But do you know this? One snip of the scissors cuts hundreds of strands at once. Every time the scissors close, hundreds of imaginary fingers are severed. My god! How painful would that be?”
The masked man crushed the gem in his hand.
A red flow seeped into the woman’s hair.
For the first time, the woman’s face turned pale.
“Now then. Welcome to our salon. You’re about to have your hair cut in front of hundreds of people. Would you like to share your thoughts?”
The masked man whispered while gripping the woman’s hair tightly.
The woman squeezed her eyes shut and trembled slightly.
“This humiliation… I will repay it without fail.”
“Puhaha! Look at her using formal speech. She’s already been tamed! I want to torment her more!”
“Just shave her head already! Keheheh!”
Shanette could no longer hold back and stood up.
At that moment, the man spoke.
“Why don’t you sit down, miss?”
“You expect me to stay still after seeing this?”
“Then why did you set fire to someone else’s clan basement and come up here? You should’ve just stayed quietly asleep.”
Shanette flinched and looked around.
Only then did she notice the killing intent surrounding them.
Some clan members’ gazes were directed their way.
The man crossed his legs and took a light drag from his cigarette.
“Well, I was surprised too. Who would’ve thought the kidnapped ones would blow up the gas chamber and come up to the headquarters? As I recall, we had them wrapped in chains, but you’re quite the escape artists.”
“If you know that much, you’re not just an ordinary clan member, are you?”
Henrik glared at the man with sharp eyes.
The man flicked the ash from his cigarette and spoke.
“Yushido, leader of the Black Tiger Clan. No need to remember the name. You’ll all die by my hand anyway.”
A chill ran down their spines.
They had barely escaped, only to run straight into the enemy leader.
Contrary to the intensifying cheers, a cold atmosphere wrapped around the table.
“You shouldn’t have impersonated us so recklessly. Because of that upper merchant who came looking for us at dusk, we had no choice but to deal with you. Especially that expressionless guy seemed fun—I thought we could get along pretty well. What a shame.”
“……Why didn’t you capture us right away and approach us normally instead?”
“No particular reason. It’s just more fun this way. Hiding my identity and revealing I’m the clan leader, then watching your surprised faces—it kills the mood, doesn’t it? Right?”
Yushido hummed a tune as he discarded his finished cigarette.
Then he habitually began gnawing on his middle finger.
It was truly an act of eating his own flesh.
Even as blood flowed, Yushido’s act of gnawing his middle finger with his teeth was steeped in madness.
“You… aren’t sane.”
“Crunch… Why? There are so many crazy people in the world. Compared to them, I’m normal. Ah, my finger? Don’t worry. My body regenerates quickly even if I gnaw on it.”
“Hmm. Then what about your heart?”
Iris lightly loosened her grip and looked at Yushido.
Yushido stopped gnawing his middle finger and stared at her.
“Have we met somewhere before?”
“Yushido.”
Kang Yoonsoo spoke at that moment.
“I was kidnapped and brought here to form an alliance with you.”
“You’re the real madman. Not only did you impersonate us, but you also set fire to our headquarters basement, and now you want an alliance?”
“Setting the fire was unavoidable. If I hadn’t, you would’ve killed us.”
“I’m going to kill all of you anyway. Why should I form an alliance with you?”
“You can’t overcome this crisis without me.”
Yushido looked puzzled.
“Crisis?”
Just then, the clan members’ jeers reached their peak.
“When are you going to start the torture already!”
“My neck’s going to snap from waiting! Damn it!”
However, the masked man didn’t use the scissors.
Instead, he threw them off the stage.
“Ladies and gentlemen! The real performance begins now. Please pay attention to your surroundings!”
Just as the clan members looked around in confusion—
At that moment, dozens of clan members drew their swords and stabbed their fellow members.
“Guh!”
“Why, why are you attacking your own clan?”
“These guys aren’t Black Tiger Clan! They’re spies!”
But it was too late.
The clan members couldn’t distinguish friend from foe, but the spies could.
They began to be slaughtered, and the situation spiraled out of control.
Right then, the man on stage slowly removed his mask.
It was a face no Black Tiger Clan member could fail to recognize.
“H-Han Sehyun?”
“That’s the White Lion Clan leader! Why is he suddenly appearing on stage!”
Han Sehyun glanced at Kang Yoonsoo.
The White Lion Clan leader smirked.
Everything went according to your plan.
Han Sehyun opened his mouth.
“There’s no particular reason.”
His gaze shifted.
Han Sehyun’s eyes met Yushido’s distorted face.
“It’s just more fun this way. Hiding my identity and revealing I’m the clan leader, then watching your surprised faces—it kills the mood, doesn’t it? Right?”