Episode 69 – Prison
by Afuhfuihgs
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A night so dark that even the moon wouldn’t rise had fallen.
When night fell, most of the streets, except for a few bars, hid in silence and the abyss, and even Shiorand, the capital of the empire where countless people lived, was no different, but the prison was especially so.
Jennifer, hanging like she was crucified with her arms tied to restraints firmly embedded in the cold stone wall, let out a shallow groan from the pain of the metal digging into her wrists.
Her neatly braided red hair was disheveled, and her glossy skin, which used to smell of expensive cosmetics and perfume, lost its luster as the bitter smell of sweat and filth rose.
Ironically, she, a member of the Hero’s Party and the great mage that the Empire boasted of, was hanging on the wall with her wrists tied, due to the concerns of those who valued her abilities.
However, beneath her hair that flowed down along her drooping head, her fiercely gleaming eyes were still blazing.
The window, placed so high that it was almost impossible to see even when she lifted her head, was beyond her reach, and even if she could close it, she wouldn’t be able to get out due to the densely packed bars, but Jennifer was still grateful for the window’s existence.
At least, if she counted the number of times sunlight came in through the window, she could tell how many days had passed.
“One week.”
Jennifer counted the number of days she had been imprisoned aloud.
Despite her voice being quite loud and clear, no one answered or showed any sign of reaction.
It seemed the guard was dozing off or had left his post to slack off, as the night deepened.
Jennifer sighed once and thought.
She realized that it had been a week since she was locked in this prison, by counting the number of times sunlight had entered through the window and then disappeared again.
Usually, in this empire, the first trial was held within four days of arresting a criminal.
But being locked up here for a week meant that someone, whether it was Robin or Villard, was postponing Jennifer’s trial.
Whether it was to save her, or to buy time to remove all evidence related to her, she couldn’t know, but it was certainly good news that normal procedures were not being followed.
Jennifer judged so.
No matter how much achievement and honor she had as a member of the Hero’s Party and a great mage, if a trial were held according to normal procedures now that the laboratory had been discovered, Jennifer would not be able to avoid the death penalty.
Jennifer tried to gather magic power at her fingertips.
But as it had been yesterday and the day before, the magic power did not gather and quickly dissipated.
This was because a magical formula that continuously consumed magic power was engraved on the metal that sharply dug into her wrists.
“Fucking hell,”
A lonely smile spread across Jennifer’s lips.
She had heard that a method of engraving magical formulas on objects to create effects was made public about seven years ago and was being applied in various fields, but Jennifer had never imagined that it would be used even in a prison like this.
Ironically, Jennifer herself was the one who discovered and announced the method.
“…Ha.”
Jennifer sighed and lowered her head.
She was very tired because she couldn’t sleep properly due to the constant pain, but Jennifer couldn’t easily close her eyes, fearing that she would be in front of the execution ground as soon as she opened them.
She recalled her conversation with her husband, Robin.
Excluding business-like conversations, the last time they had a proper conversation was on Dena’s birthday, when she ended up getting beaten by him.
Jennifer, who was greatly shocked by Daniel’s undead incident that occurred the day after arguing with Robin, had devoted herself to research ever since without having a chance to reconcile with Robin, so the last conversation she had with him was only his sharp warning.
Well, how could Robin’s insides not be rotting, having found out about his wife’s affair, or perhaps he had known about it for a long time but pretended not to know.
Jennifer honestly didn’t expect Robin to come and save her.
However, at the same time, a sense of injustice began to rise within her.
“Do you think I liked sucking up to that old duke, even giving him my body? It was for the political standing that Robin screwed up by playing both sides so clumsily.”
A lament that no one heard quietly crashed and shattered against the prison walls.
How did I end up like this?
Jennifer carefully retraced her thoughts.
The relationship between Jennifer, Robin, and Villard existed even before the Hero’s Party set out.
Villard was their patron from the beginning, and he had planned to become emperor through their achievements.
It was predetermined from then on that all the female members of the Hero’s Party would become Robin’s wives.
If all the Hero’s Party became a family and supported Villard, it was clear that he would become the emperor of the empire that unified this continent.
However, Edgar, who suddenly joined the party, was the problem.
As he became deeply involved with the Saintess, Villard’s plans began to go awry.
In the end, they betrayed and killed Edgar, but Mela’s sadness and love for him were so great that they couldn’t hide or diminish Edgar’s achievements.
Funnily enough, sacrifices are sometimes valued more highly than the achievements of the living, so in the end, the emperor’s seat was taken by Edgar, the Saintess, and the king of Shiorand, Robin’s hometown.
But, instead, through heartfelt consolation, Robin obtained the Saintess, so Villard, with Robin and the rest of the party members on his back, was planning to overthrow the current emperor when,
Suddenly, the incident of Lara disappearing occurred.
After that day, which not only Villard but also Robin was taken aback by, and because the current emperor’s reign and reputation were very stable, Villard slightly changed the direction of his plan to usurp the throne.
In the direction of Villard’s son, Piadu, succeeding to the throne.
For that, the engagement between the Hero’s family and the Villard family proceeded.
Although it was a bit bumpy, everything was clearly going well after that.
The fact that Robin knew about Jennifer and Villard’s affair was certainly an element that would cause a big problem someday, but since they were the Voldiras family under the influence of Duke Balguir, Robin would have quietly overlooked it if nothing else had happened.
However, from some point on, everything started to go wrong all at once.
The beginning was Rose and Baron Salvie, who suddenly appeared from somewhere.
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“Fuck, fuck, because of those two bastards,”
Jennifer cursed.
For the first three days of being imprisoned, she screamed and twisted her body in fear of death,
From the fourth day, she collapsed from exhaustion,
From the fifth day, her head cooled down a bit and she started to think, and the result of her thinking was that those two were the problem.
Rose, that terrible daughter who seduced Daniel with her lewd body and caused him to die.
Rose, who had no talent in magic or swordsmanship but had a strong sense of pride, continued to mess things up, but as Jennifer’s daughter, she had the same figure as her mother, which was good at seducing men.
In the end, her own brother Daniel, who was seduced by her, died in vain for her sake.
Daniel was a much more talented and lovable son than Rose.
Jennifer resented Rose very much, even though she was her daughter.
But the possession experiment that called Rose into Robin’s illegitimate child Banata’s body showed successful results, so if she succeeded in reviving Daniel as it was, she was even thinking of forgiving her,
Jennifer gritted her teeth and thought of another person.
Baron Salvie.
He was a figure who was pitied for continuously suffering damage to the Voldiras barony, starting with Rose, and at the same time, he was famous as a saint-like person who forgave everything and even gave back, but Jennifer felt that he was more like a plague god.
That fucking bastard who had money rotting away, she didn’t know where he got it from.
Everything had been going wrong since he appeared.
Daniel broke into Baron Salvie’s ship to prepare Rose’s bail money, accidentally fell into the water, and lost his life, and Rose also threw herself and ended her life in shock.
Moreover, because he happened to witness the resurrected Daniel, Jennifer and Robin had to suffer from the anxiety of whether he would open his mouth, and unlike their expectations that he would die, he recovered perfectly.
There were rumors that the princess had been visiting him frequently recently, so perhaps the baron had recovered with the help of the princess,
If the baron owed the princess a debt and decided to help her, he would end up being nothing different from an enemy of the Voldiras family.
In fact, even if she didn’t think about the Rose and Daniel incidents, the baron’s actions had been annoying from the beginning.
From the brazen demand of a foreigner with a dubious identity to come to the Voldiras family and apologize because he had some reputation in the area, and
His free meals of insane quality, which subtly undermined and ridiculed the hero’s wealth and honor, were also like that.
It was clear that the people would no longer look at the Hero’s Party with the same admiration as before due to Jennifer’s criminal behavior this time,
But before that, it was also true that the baron’s high-quality free meals were gradually damaging Robin’s reputation, which had been overwhelmingly supported by the people.
Jennifer had seen the free meals that the baron provided with her own eyes.
Insanely expensive and luxurious dishes that only wealthy central nobles would eat.
Even at the Voldiras’ mansion, which was a count family, they couldn’t eat such food every day.
Moreover, it was no longer a secret that not only beggars but also surrounding merchants or even lower-class nobles secretly received the meals.
In addition, there were rumors that Mela’s son, Edward, found the secret laboratory hidden in Jennifer’s room because a doctor attached to the baron had told him.
Well, how could Edward, who had no magical knowledge, have found that room?
Jennifer clenched her teeth, regretting her foolishness in trying to bring him to her side just because of his wealth.
If she could just get out of here,
If she could just get out, she would definitely tear Baron Salvie apart with her own hands.
That was when Jennifer was making up her mind.
Gigiik kkiiik
An unidentified noise began to be heard from above Jennifer’s head.
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“What is it?”
Of course, it was a dark prison, but suddenly it felt even darker.
Jennifer struggled to lift her head and looked at the high window.
She couldn’t see the entire appearance of the window, but it was clear that something was blocking it.
Jennifer held her breath with a faint hope that it might be something that had come to rescue her.
However, soon her gaze changed from expectation to shock.
It wasn’t blocking the window.
That wriggling something was coming in here through the bars.
“What… what the hell is that… what?!”
Hudududuk,
A black, blood-like liquid began to pour out of that something that was forcibly pushing its body into the bars, which were so dense that no one could pass through, along with a hiss hiss sound.
The sound of the bars groaning and being pressed down and the sound of liquid flowing along the wall were eerily audible.
Jennifer desperately racked her brain to figure out what she was seeing, but she couldn’t understand the situation at all.
Puuuk, jjijijik!
Hudududuk
“Kyaaaaak!”
The pitch-black something that was pressing down on the bars with tremendous pressure soon began to fall into the prison, its body torn to fit the bar spacing.
Jennifer was so surprised that she screamed.
Despite Jennifer’s screams echoing in the prison, the guard still showed no sign of appearing.
“Kuh, wha… what is this.”
The stench of a fishy blood scent that she had smelled several times in her laboratory.
Jennifer wanted to cover her nose, but she couldn’t move her hands, which were fixed to the wall.
No, even if her hands were free, she might not have been able to move.
Jennifer was so terrified as she watched this incomprehensible phenomenon.
Something like thick slices of meat the size of the bars rolled towards Jennifer’s eyes.
It was clearly a part of a human leg.
Tuk
Tutuk
Ujijik,
Soon all the other pieces fell through the bars.
The pieces that fell with a splattering sound and splattered blood, some rolled away, and some were crushed as they fell from the high window.
When something like a clump of black fur fell last, Jennifer’s eyes widened.
It was a human head with hair attached.
It was too dark to tell whose head it was, but what was certain was that it only had the top of the head to the nose, and the mouth and neck were cut off, or rather, torn off.
“Ugh, guard! Guard!!!”
“Shh- the guard won’t come.”
“Hiik!”
Jennifer turned her head towards the source of the voice and averted her eyes from the gruesome sight.
It was a part of a face that was cut off with only the neck and mouth attached.
“Kyaaak!”
Jennifer trembled all over and tightly closed her eyes.
Something terrible had entered this prison, and the powerlessness of not being able to resist or escape because she was tied up was more frightening than anything else in the world.
She didn’t know what that terrible thing was, but the fact that it could speak meant that it was at least alive.
Jennifer turned her eyes away from the terrible sight.
“Oh, I thought you’d be used to seeing terrible things, but aren’t you too weak for the owner of that terrible laboratory?”
“…Wh… what is this thing?”
“What do you mean ‘this thing’? It’s at least a person.”
“…You’re a person… you say?”
“…Hehe, would you mind turning your head a little and waiting?”
When Jennifer turned her head, a flash of light seemed to fill the prison for a moment.
Jennifer was startled by the golden light that she seemed to have seen somewhere before and raised her head.
The bloodstains and pieces of meat that had been all over the floor disappeared in an instant, and a perfectly fine person was bowing his head and wearing a mask.
“…You are…”
“You’re not looking your best, Countess.”
“…Baron Salvie?”
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