The Tower of Urolithiasis - Part One
The eunuch strode toward the endless hell with a spring in his step. Nyo-ho-ho. Nyo-ho-ho. While his colleagues were busy suppressing the rebellion, this particular eunuch had been saddled with managing the infernal prison, visiting every single day to check on Sunho's condition.
The location of the hellish pit lay deep within the capital itself—right inside the palace grounds—yet tucked away in the most inaccessible corner imaginable, carved out like a gaping sinkhole. No one could easily reach it.
"Nyo-hu... This place is filthy no matter how many times I come... The dust flies everywhere, it reeks of corpses, and if I try to clean it, the guards get in the way..."
The eunuch pinched his nose with his collar and scanned the surroundings. Tall walls had been erected to guard the descending pit, manned by watchful soldiers. The walls of the underground shaft were riddled with holes fitted with iron bars, turning them into cells for the prisoners. A special barrier covered everything from the entrance to the bottom, rendering magic, portals, and teleportation completely useless. That was why it was called the Endless Hell. Even if someone managed to escape their cell, collapsing the ceiling above would crush them all to death. The defenses were flawless.
"I'm here to see the princess, so please guide me~!"
He's going again. What a disgusting bastard.
The soldier, his face hidden behind his helmet, harbored deep resentment but showed nothing outwardly. He obeyed without a word.
At the center of the passage leading underground, they rode an elevator that looked like something from a mine shaft. When they reached the very bottom, she was there—shrouded in darkness where almost no light reached.
Hiss... Hiss...
Her face had turned a sickly blue. One eye was ruined. Her fingers were broken, her nails completely torn out. The torture inflicted on her genitals didn't even need mentioning. Dried blood crusted everywhere, filling the air with the metallic stench of iron. She could no longer even scream. Blood dripped from between her shattered teeth onto her thighs—thighs where the skin had been flayed away, making the mere sight of them agonizing. Her outstretched legs trembled faintly, as if her body itself shuddered at the pain.
"Nyo-ho-ho... You're in quite the terrible state again today~? Really, you should just give up already~!"
"…………"
Her one bruised eye barely moved to glare at the eunuch. But she gave no answer. Her body wasn't in any condition to speak, and she had no strength left anyway.
"No answer, but that's proof you'll break soon~! Nyo-ho-ho-ho-hot!! So, how was it during the night?"
"What do you mean?"
"There weren't any insolent fools who tried to break in here, right~?"
"Yes. There were no problems on that front."
"No problems?"
When the eunuch pressed with obvious emphasis, the soldier pointed upward and replied.
"Well... since yesterday, soldiers have suddenly started coming down with high fevers. Three out of the five units responsible for security are down with illness, so we may need reinforcements..."
"We are busy suppressing the rebellion right now~! Most of the soldiers have been deployed to block those foolish rebels, so you lot will just have to manage on your own~!"
As expected.
"Those lowly commoners can't even take care of their own bodies~! That's part of their duty too~! Tsk, tsk, tsk!"
"...My apologies."
The soldier bowed his head quietly, having expected nothing more. He stepped back. The eunuch maintained his irritated attitude before turning back to Sunho.
"Are you listening, you foolish princess~? The sparks of rebellion have almost all been extinguished~! This commotion will be over soon~! As planned, the other nations are only issuing statements and refusing to move, so that stubbornness of yours won't last much longer! Once this is all over, I'll torment you even more thoroughly. I'll make you dance naked in front of the citizens, so look forward to it~! Nyo-ho-ho-ho-hot!!"
Or else, he mused aloud, it might be fun to have her mate with dogs and wild beasts, letting his twisted fantasies run wild. Such behavior earned the soldier's silent disgust, but the man lacked the courage to join the rebellion himself.
"......Then, what about Setka?"
"Nyo-ho?"
The answer came at last. She had clearly intended to remain silent, yet even Sunho herself asked with a hint of desperate clinging in her heart.
The eunuch grinned wickedly in response.
"Of course, they are merely observing as well~! No matter how much of an empress she may be, she cannot intervene in another nation's politics with military force~! ...We were truly terrified when their army actually began to move at one point, but they withdrew as if it had all been a lie! Nyo-ho-ho-ho!! Did you have some kind of expectation placed on them~?"
The last thread of hope she had clung to melted away like snow. It was true that the army had moved, and without Roman's intervention they truly would have stepped in—but since Sunho had no way of knowing that, only despair remained.
So... that's it... Sadat... didn't move after all...
She ground her remaining teeth, but all it brought was more pain. No will to fight remained. Something vital inside her was on the verge of breaking. No matter how strong her spirit, she was still just a young woman. The fact that she had endured this long was already remarkable.
"Nyo-ho-ho~! If you beg like a dog even now, I might still show you some affection, you know~?"
A dog... If I become a dog... could I escape this pain......?
On top of that, Riu—who had been her pillar of support—was dead. The father she had trusted most had left her with nothing but resentment. The thought of simply letting everything go and becoming a beast seemed almost comforting, and her mind began drifting in that direction again.
"Your answer?"
"…………"
"Nyo-o...?"
Even so, she gave no reply. It was her final act of defiance.
"Such stubbornness. After only a few days of torture, you've already been worn down this much, yet you think anything will change if we continue~! Princess Sunho truly possesses the disposition of a pervert~!!"
When he kicked the iron bars, a man who had been sleeping in the corner of Sunho's cell jolted awake. He was the one who had carried out her torture. Since he ate and slept alongside her, he had been locked up in the same cell. He let out a short yawn, then picked up his blades again.
"...How shall we proceed?"
"We have time today, so I'm in the mood to savor her screams~!"
"Understood..."
Tap. Tap. Tap.
He rapped the floor three times, signaling the start. Sunho's one ruined eye opened at the sight of the thin blade that had flayed her skin countless times.
"M...! Kuu... Haa, haaaaaagh...!"
No matter how hard she tried to act tough and stubborn, her body betrayed her with screams. Just imagining what was about to happen made bloody foam bubble from her mouth and drip down.
"Nyo-ho-ho-ho-hook!! Even Princess Sunho looks just like a crab now! If only you had obediently acted like a dog from the beginning!"
You devil... Please... just die...! Die die die die die... Die die die die... Diiiie!!
She repeated the curse over and over in her mind, letting out a short, hoarse scream. The soldier watched the scene in silence. The princess he had once respected was crying before him, and though he felt a twinge of guilt, other thoughts filled his head.
With scum like this in charge, this country is finished. I've saved up enough money—maybe I should take this chance to defect to another nation. I hear the Britannia region is safe. I could work as a guard there and live comfortably with my family—
Plop.
Comfortably...? ...Huh?
His vision flipped upside down. The gaze that had been fixed forward spun once, showing the ceiling below, then the ceiling above again, repeating the motion several times before his cheek slammed into the floor.
It's cold. Darling...
His eyes closed. The last thing he saw was his own crushed torso on the ground—and someone's legs.
"Nyo-ho? Wait, why is your head..."
The eunuch belatedly turned at the sight of the suddenly collapsed soldier, but it was far too late. The moment he turned, it filled his vision.
...A spear?
The sight of the blade flying toward his shoulder looked like it was in slow motion.
──Shwaaaaaat!!!
"Heh? O, oghoheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeck!!!!!! Ugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!"
The long spear tip pierced cleanly through his right shoulder. The impact sent his body flying backward, slamming into the prison bars beside Sunho's cell with a heavy thud!
How many seconds remained before the sharp pain turned into excruciating agony? While his brain flooded him with pleasure chemicals that momentarily dulled the pain, he looked ahead—but the attack was far from over.
"Wh-what the hell is thiiiiis~?!!"
Taaaaang!!!
"Bghiiiiiiiiiiiiik!?!!! Bhoooook!! Bho, bho, bheeeeeeeeeeck~!!"
Another spear flew into his left shoulder, piercing the flesh and destroying both shoulders completely. Pinned to the wall by the spears, he looked like an insect in a specimen case.
Th-this, bghigik!! What the—?! What the hell is going on?! Who the hell is attacking me~!!
The already dark underground grew even blurrier with the added pain. As if answering his confusion, the deep floor of the Endless Hell suddenly burst open with a deafening roar.
It was a voice both familiar and utterly unfamiliar...
"I skipped every single sub-event after checking the strategy guide and rushed straight to the main event—! I'm the kind of guy who downloads the SAVE file the moment a new eroge comes out, turns on the flashback scenes, jerks off, and then deletes it, you bastard—!!"
"─Intruder!!"
"No. Be quiet."
"Kuh?!"
Finally, the iron bars sliced through the neck of the man in charge of the torture, and his head fell with a wet thud.
"...I've taken care of it."
The first to emerge from the darkness was Saki. Roman followed at a leisurely pace with the Xiao and Mao twins, descending through the hole that had been carved into the ground.
"Your assassination skills are killer. Thanks to you, the trip here was nice and smooth."
"I'm still a newcomer, after all. I will continue working hard to earn your trust, my lord."
Saki—the one who had swung the blade—bowed her head, then gripped her sword once more.
"─Hup!!"
Clang!
With a slightly lower slash than before, she sliced through every remaining iron bar in one clean sweep. She was still wearing only a fundoshi, but her skill was the real deal. Despite her ridiculous appearance, she was already drenched in the blood of who knew how many victims.
"You people...! Who the hell sent you to do something like this......"
"Oh! It's the egg~! Nice to see you again! This is our first time meeting since then, right~? I'm feeling pretty worked up right now, so forgive me for coming in a bit rough!!"
"Y-you... Cornelius! It was you after all~!"
Even through his pain-blurred vision, the eunuch could see Roman smiling while somehow looking irritated at the same time. He raised his voice.
"What the hell is this?! What is your purpose in doing something this horrible to me!! And how the hell did you even get in here in the first place?!"
It was an obvious question, and the answer should have been obvious too—but from the eunuch's perspective, he truly had no idea. From their point of view, the Cornelius family had no reason to escalate things so dramatically for Sunho's sake.
"Why am I here? I came to pick up Princess Sunho. What other reason would there be?"
"Th-that's why I'm asking—how the hell are you here?!"
"Like I said, I came to pick up Princess Sunho."
"You crazy bastard, there has to be a reason for this!!!"
"Huh? Oh, a reason? You shouldn't be the one asking that. No matter how similar our positions are, there's still professional courtesy. If someone suddenly showed up and started snatching away all the erotic CGs and flashback scenes I'd been slowly filling out, wouldn't you get mad? Especially when there's no save file, so if I miss this one I can't fill it in—wouldn't that piss you off?"
"What the hell are you even..."
"So I'm asking—I'm in the middle of filling out my flashback scenes, my erotic CGs, my main event, and some asshole is trying to snatch them away and delete them. Wouldn't that make you angry? Wouldn't it? Wouldn't it? —I'm fucking pissed, you pathetic piece of shit!!!!"
──Crunchhhhh!!!
"Bghoooooooook!!! O, egh, you crazy bastard! Make it make sense! H-h-h-h-h-hick!! Bhoooook!! Bghiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!"
Roman pressed down on the spear embedded in the eunuch's shoulder with a grinding motion, his irritation reaching its peak. From Roman's perspective there was a clear reason, but from the eunuch's it was complete nonsense. Their words kept missing each other entirely.
"Goddamn it! I'm the one who wants to know what the hell you're talking about! Those fat pigs who do nothing but eat kept spitting in my face! I was this close to completing 100% of the GC flashback scenes, but some fucker snatches a massive event worth 10 to 20% right next to me! Even someone as gentle as me would get pissed, you son of a bitch!!!"
"Bghoooooooooooooooooock!!!!! Agh!! Agagagagack!!! Ngyaaaaaaaah!!!!"
"They didn't even put NTR in the tags, but they're trying to turn a girl someone else is after into used goods! And if I miss this event, it means I'm definitely missing the Royal Harem End at the end, right?! So of course I had to come storming in?! If the opponent is just an egg, there's no guilt at all!!! I don't need some NTR character that only has a standing CG and no flashback scenes at all!!!!"
"G-g-g-gik, you crazy bastard!!! You insane lunatic!!!!"
Grind. Grind. After digging into the wound several times, Roman's hand suddenly stopped. He immediately roared.
"Do you even realize what you're doing right now~?! To point a blade at me, the ruler of this nation~! No matter who you are, this is something I cannot simply overlook~!!"
"Haha, what are you even saying? The ruler of this country is Sunlung. No matter what's happening inside, that's the official story on the surface, which is why we've left it alone until now, isn't it?"
He grabbed the spear in the eunuch's right shoulder and twisted it violently~!!
"Kiiiiigh~! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!! You madman!! You lunatic! I don't know if you're on drugs or what, but do you really think you'll get away with this?!?!?!"
"Of course I'll get away with it! Because I'm me, so I'll be forgiven no matter what I do!"
"I-I don't know where that confidence comes from!! You don't even know who you've made an enemy of, you stupid, foolish fool~!! You will die soon!!!!"
Viiiiiiiiing~!! Viiiiiiiiing~!!
The entire Endless Hell was dyed red as alarms began to blare. The ceiling grew noisy. The warning signals had been triggered once they realized something was happening below. The eunuch laughed, thinking that soldiers would soon descend and capture them, but Roman remained perfectly relaxed.
"You're the one who doesn't know who you've made an enemy of."
"Just because you possess a few Great Spirits, you think your pathetic little family can scare me?! This will become a war between nations!! Do you even understand that?! Roman Corneliusssss~!!!"
"Great Spiiiiirits~? War between natioooons~? ...What the hell kind of nonsense is that?"
Twist!
"Ughiiii!? Ugeok! Ugaaaaaagh!!"
"That's not it. The one you picked a fight with isn't the Cornelius family or anything like that. And Great Spirits? You think I'd come all the way here relying on something like that?"
"Ugh... ugh... kuu~! Then what the hell is it!!!"
"─A god."
Beneath the red emergency lights, Roman grinned fiercely with tentacles rising behind his back.
"A... a god?"
"That's right. You ignored my god. You scolded and looked down on someone you should have revered and been grateful to. A mere talking pig who thinks he's some rare delicacy... You don't actually believe a worthless thug like you will be allowed to live, do you?"
"What nonsense are you spouting?! I have no idea what you're talking about! Have you joined some weird cult or something?!"
"Where did your trademark nyo-ho speech go? Come on, laugh some more. Just like before."
"You madman! You madman! You insane fooool!! Stop it! I am one of the Four Envoys! One of the four who rule this country...!!"
Crunch!
"Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!"
This time he pulled the spear free, but two women immediately took his place—Xiao and Mao, each gripping a spear.
"The one who rules this country is my sister."
"You worthless bastard, just go to hell...!!"
"──You filthy whoooooores!!!!!"
Reacting to the eunuch's scream, several old elevators began to move as soldiers tried to descend. This was the underground. The only way up was the elevators. There was nowhere to run.
"N-nyo-hihihik!! Look! The guards are moving! There's no escape from here~! I will definitely capture you all and turn you into human pigs!! Especially you bitches!!! I'll make sure to commit every kind of blasphemous act imaginable with you and Princess Sunho, so look forward to it!!!!"
"What an imagination."
"─Bghik?!"
Before he could finish speaking, a tentacle smashed his head apart. His brains splattered in every direction. He didn't even leave behind last words. The headless torso stuck to the wall like a mosquito hit by a flyswatter.
"Is this... enough...?"
"We could have done... more..."
"There are still three left, so you can vent the rest on them."
Roman reached toward the ceiling. Tentacles generated from the floor yanked all the elevators down at once. The elevators hurtling straight toward the ground shattered, turning the soldiers inside into flattened rice cakes. Since magic could not be used here, even soldiers who bravely leaped from the elevators often lost their momentum in midair and fell to their deaths.
"Corpses are falling from the sky~!"
"Right... Magic is forbidden but curses are okay? Isn't that a bit too opportunistic for a setting?"
"Well, this is a prison. Curses are usually used for torture, aren't they?"
"I-is that so?"
"It definitely is. Curses are normally used for that sort of thing—Hup!! In any case, it's strange that our lord is the one using them like this!"
"Stop talking while you're killing people. It makes you look rude."
"Haha~!"
A soldier who had luckily survived with broken limbs was swiftly beheaded by Saki. She had already killed quite a few by now; her movements were practiced and efficient. The girl who used to spray smoke bombs from her butt had a completely different image in real combat.
"Big brother, we've rescued big sister."
"Should we... run away now?"
"...What about the princess?"
"She fainted..."
"She was unconscious from the moment big brother appeared..."
"No wonder it was so quiet."
Roman's tension dropped slightly as he looked up at the ceiling. The alarm continued to blare and the soldiers seemed busy, but their numbers weren't that high.
"It looks like they aren't planning to collapse the ceiling... Do they still think the Four Envoys are alive?"
"What should we do now~?"
"Let's head up."
"It's a good chance for me to show you my skills, my lord... but wouldn't it be better to escape?"
"If the ceiling collapses, everyone here will die. These people will become the foundation of Sunho's faction later. It would be troublesome if they died."
"Oho! Understood! Then I'll kill them all~!"
"They'll be using magic up above, so don't let your guard down too much."
"I'll be fine! Killing is my specialty, even if I don't look it!"
"That's not really something to brag about so cheerfully..."
Still, he praised her for being reliable in this moment. With tentacles at his feet, he slowly rose upward.
"Then we'll go on ahead..."
"Yeah. Link up with the rebels. I'll clean up here and follow slowly."
"Big brother... Please stay safe..."
With those words, the Xiao and Mao sisters also left through the new hole in the floor.
Only two people remained—Roman and Saki, rising upward on tentacles.
"I wonder if the kids up there like kidney stones?"
"Ugh... Wouldn't it be more proper to just kill them instead of doing something like that?"
"I'll subdue them, and you'll kill them. Nice division of labor, right?"
"I've never heard of a division of labor like that before?!"
The man who had said killing wasn't something to brag about was now looking at Saki with sparkling eyes. After Perpena had given him a little push, he was acting like an excited child, wrapping his entire body in curses and preparing to test out new ones.