episode_0030
by fnovelpia
Odooki, who seemed to mimic a child’s voice frighteningly as if Soo was leaving, came out heavily and pointed at Iris.
Since there was nothing but violence to return to if she rebelled here, I got up from my seat and approached Odooki. Even though I approached quickly, Odooki’s expression wasn’t good.
“Ik! That’s why slaves need to be beaten to come to their senses!”
Odooki, with a face reddened like crimson, pointed at Iris with his finger. When I turned around, Iris sat with a blank face as if she hadn’t heard anything.
“Damn slave girl!”
Odooki took out the whip he had on his waist and swung it roughly.
Swish, crack!
When the whip hit the floor of the prison, a harsh sound echoed.
“Gasp…?! If that hits, won’t I die?”
I was shocked to see a broken rock hit by the whip on the ground and approached Iris.
“Iris, get up quickly! Let’s go!”
“…?”
Iris just slightly opened her mouth and stared at me blankly. She seemed to be out of it, like someone in a daze. I forced Iris to stand up.
“Get up… come on!”
Thankfully, she obediently got up when I forced her. It seemed more like she couldn’t react because she was completely out of it rather than deliberately ignoring me.
“How dare you! How dare you all ignore me?!”
Not liking that I was taking care of Iris, Odooki raised the whip and swung it roughly.
Crack!
The whip tore through my back and passed. With a sharp pain like tearing off a bandage, the smell of blood filled the air.
“Ow!”
I winced as the pain made my legs tremble. I shivered as if someone had put ice down my clothes as I removed the patch.
“Get up!”
I grabbed Iris’s wrist at the rough sound. Iris followed as if being dragged along like a broken doll.
“If you dare defy me here, you won’t have a good time!”
After swinging the whip on the ground a few times, Oduggi swiftly turned around and started walking. Oduggi was much shorter than an average adult male, about a head taller than me.
Thanks to that, I could easily catch up with his brisk pace. As we passed by the prisons on both sides of the large road, the path split.
There were a total of four paths, including where Iris and I were standing. The front and back paths looked the same as the one we had walked so far. It was a design with prisons on both sides of the central path.
To the right of where I was standing, there was a long path that extended far. At the end of the path, there was a large door that seemed to be about 10 meters high.
To the left, there was a short path that led to a staircase of about ten steps. Oduggi shifted his footsteps to the left path.
“Wow, could this be an elevator?”
As we climbed the stairs, there was a wooden elevator that seemed to have been used in a past mine. Oduggi and I got on the elevator, and Oduggi pulled the rope on the left.
Creak, clunk.
The elevator shook and slowly began to descend. The surroundings darkened as if descending into a vertical cave.
Although there were two lanterns on the elevator, they were not very bright when they went out.
Click, click.
Bright light seeped back into the elevator, and we arrived at a lower floor. Oduggi silently shook the rope once more.
Then the elevator began to descend further.
The rope was pulled three times in total. At least it meant we were going down to the fourth basement level.
“I’ll give you the spoon later, won’t I?”
Even if this place is the tenth basement level, we would be able to escape from the prison in no time with the fearsome spoon becoming a formidable excavator.
“Now, this is where you will stay from now on.”
Oduggi pointed to a sturdy door and said. When he opened the door, the narrow interior of the cramped prison was revealed. The small room was so tight that it would be filled if three adult men lay down, and it was so dark that there was not even a lantern, let alone a window.
“Hurry up and get in!”
She pulled Iris into the narrow prison, as if wanting to raise a whip right away.
Creak, clank! Thud!
Iris and I found ourselves trapped in the pitch-black darkness.
***
Rustle, crack!
“…!”
Noah suddenly widened his eyes as he looked at the practice wooden sword that had just broken. Wood splinters were scattered everywhere as if it had been twisted and broken with both hands.
“It’s broken like this. It broke more easily than I thought, probably because it wasn’t properly maintained.”
Juliana grumbled and told Noah to quickly bring a new wooden sword. Noah silently looked at the broken edge, then nodded belatedly.
“Why am I so anxious?”
Noah clenched and released his hand repeatedly due to the anxiety that was piercing around his neck. Her gaze turned toward the place where Lian had been sitting.
The place seemed empty as if no one had been there in the first place.
“Maybe she left for something else. Lian is busy.”
Suppressing the anxiety, Noah headed towards the warehouse where the wooden swords were kept.
“Ugh, feeling bad.”
As soon as he entered the warehouse, all he saw near the entrance was a dead insect the size of a palm. Juliana shrank her body slightly behind Noah, apparently disliking the bug.
Thump, thump, thump!
A broken wooden sword, dead insect carcass.
Things that would have been trivial on any other day felt strangely frightening and terrifying. Noah looked down at the insect carcass, groping through his memories.
“Why am I so anxious? Was there something that made me this anxious?”
Despite nothing coming to mind, the anxiety continued to grow. In the end, Noah left the warehouse without taking the wooden sword.
“Huh? Where are you going? The restroom?”
Noah’s heart pounded as if it would leap out of his throat, and his mind went blank, unable to answer Juliana’s question. His brisk walk turned into a staggering gait.
“Gasp, cough…!”
Noah realized. When had he felt this anxiety and fear before?
“Lian! Lian!”
Through the crack, a dreadful scene flashed before my eyes.
“Rian!”
The first place I headed was the kitchen. But there were only children preparing vegetables.
“Looking for Rian hyung?”
“I saw him. He was carrying something like this and heading to the sleeping room earlier.”
“What’s that about?”
“Dunno.”
Noah disregarded the children’s conversation and rushed to the dormitory. As he neared the dormitory, his anxiety grew.
“Rian!”
With an urgent voice, Noah opened the dormitory door in search of Rian. The only thing that greeted him was cute dolls neatly arranged on the bed.
With half-crazed eyes, Noah immediately opened another door. Rian was not in the second or third room either.
“Rian, please… Are you here?”
With a trembling, helpless laugh, Noah opened the last door.
Creak.
The door opened cautiously. The first thing that caught his eye was Pia, sitting on the floor, clutching her hair.
“Why? Why aren’t you saying anything? Is it over now? Huh? Please answer me. Please, please, please.”
Pia wanted reassurance that she hadn’t been wrong, pleading with her brother several times, but the spell had been broken, and she couldn’t hear any response.
“Pia…?”
Noah didn’t recognize Pia right away due to her completely blackened hair and dark purple eyes, but as soon as he saw her face, he recognized her.
Pia lifted her head at Noah’s voice and looked at her.
“Ah… Noah.”
Pia got up with a wry smile. Noah thought Pia’s expression was chilling.
“Listen. I finally saved you guys.”
“What?”
“You, me, and we finally banished the hypocrite who tormented us! But my sister… my sister won’t answer. Ah, has she finally left me, free from lingering regrets?”
Muttering incomprehensible words, Pia seemed insane. Suppressing the urge to run away immediately, Noah spoke.
“Pia, did you poison Rian by any chance?”
“Poison Rian?”
Pia quickly erased her smile and rolled her eyes before looking down at the floor. Following Pia’s gaze, one could find a doll rolling on the floor.
In another room, a doll that had been lying on the bed was now rolling on the floor only in this room.
“Why is this on the floor…? Pia, what on earth happened here?”
As Noah asked, unable to conceal his trembling voice, Pia slowly blinked her large eyes and forced a smile, as if trying to hide something.
“I told you earlier. I kicked out that damn hypocrite Lian.”
“What..?”
“Do you think so too? Lian is garbage. He’s just using us, pretending to be nice and all.”
A slight confusion swirled in Pia’s eyes, which had seemed insane just a moment ago. Pia’s voice trembled softly. She spoke compulsively, as if confirming something.
“Right? That jerk Lian is garbage. We should just kill that trash right away! Having him around us doesn’t help at all, it just makes us suffer!”
Pia’s gaze wandered the floor. At the end of her gaze was a doll made to look exactly like Pia’s hairstyle.
“…R-right? Is that, is that it?”
Pia’s voice was trembling uncontrollably by now.
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