Beyond the Cage
Beyond the Cage
At first glance, she looked like an ordinary girl.
Her pitch-black hair was extremely frizzy, likely due to malnutrition, and the dress she wore was tattered beyond even a rag, but her body proportions and voice were those of a typical young girl.
What I found peculiar were her ears.
Animal ears protruding from the top of the frontal bone rather than the temporal bone.
From their shape, they seemed to belong to a canine species.
Curiosity sparked.
'Are they real ears?'
I slowly approached and brushed aside the hair covering her temporal bone.
The result was astonishing.
"Kyaa!"
The girl flinched and curled up like an armadillo—that was surprising enough—but the fact that skin covered the area where an earhole should have been left me utterly shocked.
'Where is the cochlea?'
The human skull was too long vertically.
It seemed impossible for sound to travel to the temporal bone with a bent ear canal like a dog's.
Yet there was no way the cochlea could form beneath the frontal bone where the cerebrum held its ground...
After calming my startled mind, I sat down in front of the girl's head.
Afraid she'd scream again if I touched her, I simply observed quietly.
The girl's poor nutritional state actually helped with observation.
Through her sparse hair, the surface of her skull was very clearly visible.
'The temporalis muscle is definitely thick. There are also a few muscles I don't recognize at all... Can this be called human?'
As I kept observing for a long while, a sobbing sound came again.
"Eomma... I'm scared..."
A non-human being that spoke language.
Far more fascinating than when I'd seen them in novels or movies.
But I couldn't keep observing forever.
A young woman's scream echoed from afar.
"Kyaaaaa!!"
Followed by a gruff man's harsh yelling.
"Just stay still!"
A dull thud and the woman's desperate cries for mercy began.
"Why are you doing this to me! What did I do wrong!"
Wondering what was happening, I approached the iron bars.
The one causing the commotion was a giant in a dark red robe.
He was dragging a woman out of a hole on the opposite side, a little farther away, but the woman was resisting fiercely.
Begging for her life while thrashing about, the man ruthlessly beat her, then pulled a dagger from his chest.
"Fucking bastard. I was being nice, trying to take you gently."
Only then did the woman stop resisting, but the man had already lost his reason.
With practiced skill, he slashed to sever her tendons, pulled a rope from his waist, and began whipping.
My eyes squeezed shut.
'This isn't the time for this.'
Whether I was truly dead,
Whether this was hell or not,
Whether the severity of my punishment was appropriate—none of that was worth pondering right now.
'I need to escape.'
The memory of the knife piercing my heart was still vivid.
I didn't want to experience that regret for life and fear of death again.
Fortunately, to me, who had worked in a state-of-the-art research lab, this prison seemed very crude.
It was just a primitive prison—a massive cave with a few holes like private cells, each fitted with iron bars.
No guards, no surveillance cameras, so there shouldn't be any issues during preparations.
With confidence, I observed my surroundings.
The thick iron door that slammed shut after the woman was dragged out.
A corridor with an area equivalent to three foot volleyball courts laid side by side.
Dozens of cells crudely carved into the sides of the corridor.
Five dogs feeding on human flesh were tied with thick chains.
'As for this side, I just need to be careful about barking...'
I looked up.
The ceiling was higher than expected.
From its smooth yet uneven surface and the sparse stalagmites, I could tell it was a naturally formed cave.
And I felt a breeze.
The ceiling, like an upside-down Grand Canyon with its violent ravines, had many hidden sections behind steep curves.
Somewhere up there, a desolate wind was seeping in.
'There's an escape hole.'
The problem was a means to reach the ceiling.
As I stroked my chin in thought, the scene from earlier came to mind.
The man who had severed the woman's tendons pulling a rope from his waist.
Estimating the length from the rope's remembered form and surveying the cave wall's unevenness, I got a rough idea.
The remaining task was timing, which required extreme patience.
It took a full five days.
Every time I heard the door open, I rushed to the iron bars to observe the situation.
Girls being dragged away quietly.
Men who resisted violently and lost their lives.
Carts loaded with dismembered corpses being pulled toward the dogs by the dark-robed thugs.
After spending five days etching all those scenes into my mind, I became convinced.
'The odds aren't too bad.'
And the timing had finally arrived.
Cheolkeong
The iron bars opened, and a gruff voice rang out.
"This is for Blackie."
Deureuk—a scraping sound—and a bowl was set down.
Then a hard piece of bread was tossed to me.
I looked down at the bowl.
It was generously filled with seasoned meat and boiled vegetables.
It was obvious who "Blackie" referred to.
My hair was white.
The girl trembling in the corner had black hair.
I turned to look at her, and the door closed.
Cheolkeong
Teobeok teobeok
Only after the guard's footsteps had sufficiently faded did the girl look my way.
A face stained with despair.
Seems she had no more tears left.
No wonder.
There was a reason the guard had specifically announced that lavish meat dish as "Blackie's share."
The last supper.
The dark-robed thugs changed the meal rations two days before dragging away their victims.
Sometimes they served whole roasted chicken; other times they offered drinks like wine.
The supper given to the girl called Blackie was among the higher-quality options.
I picked up the bowl.
I approached the girl.
She reacted in terror, as if I were bringing her poisoned wine.
She dragged her bottom backward, then burst into tears as her back hit the wall.
I stopped a couple of steps away from her.
When her wailing exhausted her stamina and turned into faint sobs, I spoke.
"Do you want to live?"
The girl's shoulders flinched.
Slowly raising her head, our eyes met.
Her face was still consumed by fear.
But if I looked closely, an emotion I hadn't seen before emerged in her eyes.
Hope and doubt.
Such faint feelings that I couldn't tell when they might vanish, but for now, it was enough.
I took another step closer.
Lowering myself, I set the bowl down in front of her and whispered.
"If we're careful, I think we might be able to escape. You'll need stamina, so eat up."
Startled, the girl opened her mouth.
I hastily raised a finger.
"Shh."
The meal distribution wasn't over yet.
A child's idea of whispering decibel is essentially random, so I wanted her to stay silent for now.
Fortunately, the girl was quick on the uptake.
She remained silent until the meal distribution ended and the thick iron door clanged shut with a loud noise, then spoke only when I sat down and started tearing into my bread.
"Hey..."
Her volume was appropriate too.
'Does she have a broader awareness of her surroundings than other kids her age?'
For five days, she'd just cried nonstop, so I thought she might have some mental disorder, but her following question was surprisingly sharp.
"...What are you? You're not a beastman, are you?"
Not swallowing my words outright, trying to verify my identity first.
Very commendable.
But I didn't even know the answer to her question myself.
"Do I look like a beastman?"
I asked back, and she returned an even more confusing question.
"Not really... but weren't you dead? How did you come back to life?"
It was a strange question.
I couldn't understand her asking if I had died, and the context made it even harder to grasp.
"Can beastmen come back to life after dying?"
"No, I mean... I thought you were dead..."
"You thought I was dead, so when I got up unharmed despite being that injured, you thought I was a beastman?"
"Oh, um, yeah. Right."
"Can beastmen do that?"
"If they're really strong beastmen... maybe..."
"What condition was I in?"
"Huh?"
"What condition was I in that made you think I was dead? Did you check my pulse and pupils?"
The girl was flustered.
'Did I sound accusatory?'
I tilted my head and changed the question.
"How many days have you been here?"
"I don't know..."
"How many times did you sleep here?"
Folding her fingers, the girl traced back through her memory and finally spoke.
"Ten...?"
"Was I here when you first arrived?"
"Yeah."
"Did you think I was dead back then too?"
"Yeah."
This was fairly important information.
It meant this body had been lying down for about five days without ingesting any nutrients.
I looked down at the bread in my hand.
'Come to think of it, I haven't felt hungry.'
I'd always had the habit of eating meals regularly, so I ate out of habit.
'I should have tested this too...'
A shame, but what's done is done.
It's fine to start now.
Without hesitation, I threw away the bread.
Facing the girl, I said.
"You eat quickly. I'll explain while you eat."
The girl's mental state seemed to have recovered somewhat.
Now it was time to plan the escape.