Ch.351EP.74 – The Knight Converses with the Butler (3)

Swish─.

It happened in an instant.

Rattle!

…React?

There wasn’t even time for that.

Literally.

“Kuhack?!”

‘At some point’ it was gripping his neck.

They say you blink and your nose gets cut off?

He experienced worse.

You blink and…

‘What the hell is “five-way dismemberment”?!’

He was one step away from execution!

Crack!

‘I-I need to escape…?!’

Thankfully, due to his Diamond Indestructible mental energy, he was still safe from the physics-defying dismemberment.

But he couldn’t hold out forever.

His mental energy could last at most 5 minutes.

After that, his body would be split into five parts, and Ihan was thinking of using force to break free, but.

Crack!

“!!”

As if reading his pathetic thoughts, suddenly at the spot bound by chains…

Whoosh!

An enormous pain began to surge.

“!!!!”

There was no wound. Nor was it poison invading.

As long as he maintained his indestructibility, his body wouldn’t be damaged.

And yet…

“Nnngh…!!”

He had to scream.

It wasn’t an exaggeration. It was truly maddening pain.

How should one describe this pain?

Like being stabbed with a knife, or being burned by fire?

Whatever it was, it was unbearably excruciating.

Even Ihan, who prided himself on his tolerance for pain, was about to lose consciousness from the dizzying agony…

That’s when.

“Personally, I believe pain is the most meaningful blessing the Light has bestowed upon humanity. Isn’t it because of pain that humans feel alive? Because of pain, we strive to treat wounds and cure diseases in advance. If humans couldn’t feel pain, humanity wouldn’t exist today. They would have gone extinct. Therefore, I am convinced that pain is a blessing, an important element that reminds us of the preciousness of life.”

Albert’s gentle voice echoed in his ears.

“However… occasionally there are ‘sinners’ who try to satisfy their desires by using this blessing. They forcibly inflict pain on others to gain benefits. …How foolish.”

Crunch!

The force of the chains constricting him grew stronger, and this time, a freezing cold pain enveloped him.

“In my younger days, I used to punish sinners who gleefully enjoyed others’ pain. Being full of vigor back then, I might have punished them excessively. But what do you know? Those sinners who felt such pleasure at others’ pain would cry out for mercy when pain befell them. How could they be so foolish… But then I thought: Ah, perhaps they aren’t foolish, but ignorant.”

Gulp!

…This time his breath was cut off.

If only he was just suffocating, he might have been able to endure it, but his body felt heavy as if submerged underwater, and it felt like water was entering his lungs.

Water was filling his mouth, nose, ears, and everywhere else.

The so-called water torture.

A classic torture technique, but cruel enough to push humans to their limits, which is why it has persisted into modern times.

“Ignorance is not a sin, but refusing to learn can be. So I decided to ‘educate’ these ignorant sinners. About what pain is. To make them understand pain so they could realize their sins.”

Woong!

The rising cold, pain, difficulty breathing, burning sensations, and even the lethargy of a cold-like illness.

Faced with waves of pain coming like complications, Ihan gradually lost consciousness, unable to maintain his senses.

“-[Pain], that is my mental energy. A very intuitive mental energy. However, being intuitive means the conditions for use are somewhat demanding. The user’s experience is important. …Well, to put it simply, I can transmit to others as much pain as I have experienced. How about that? Nothing special, right?”

A soliloquy, not a question expecting an answer.

As he laughed casually,

Crack!

…A chilling sound was heard.

A bursting sound as if something was being crushed.

A sound that made listeners’ knees weak with pain.

As if something had shattered under the pressure of the chains.

It sounded no different from a body being completely destroyed, but…

“Hehe.”

Despite such a bursting sound, Albert just smiled contentedly.

He still looked pleased, and it seemed like he might be mocking his destroyed opponent, but.

“Puhah…!”

The opponent wasn’t destroyed.

Rather.

“Haa! Haaa… Haa! I-I nearly died…!!”

He was as lively as a fresh fish.

Thud…

Ihan had dramatically escaped from the chains.

As if he’d just discovered how sweet and refreshing oxygen could be, he continued to supply himself with fresh oxygen, and to him who had learned the preciousness of life in 5 minutes.

“Excellent.”

The butler offered a pleased compliment.

…Not that it was appreciated at all.

“…Do you mean you’re disappointed I didn’t die?”

“Not at all, I’m genuinely impressed. I never expected you to escape from the chains like that.”

Though it wasn’t evident in his expression, Albert was genuinely impressed.

He prided himself on having lived a long time, and the fate of those who fell victim to Albert’s execution techniques was mostly similar.

Either they died instantly by his execution technique and passed peacefully.

Or they were destroyed in [Pain].

…Or they degenerated into beasts or idiots who forgot they were once human.

Some extraordinary strong individuals did escape the fates mentioned above, but they were truly a tiny minority.

At this point, it would be no exaggeration to say that no one could escape his execution techniques.

…But his opponent had escaped.

And at that.

“To contract and compress all your muscles, bones, and blood flow to escape—that’s an impressive feat, Lord Ihan.”

With such an acrobatic feat.

Clap clap-.

Albert clapped as if he had watched a circus or magic show, and the recipient of the praise…

“…No matter how I look at it, you’re just messing with me…”

Couldn’t shake off his reasonable suspicion.

* * *

…He had nearly died.

This wasn’t a metaphor, but a statement of fact.

Crack.

In that desperately urgent situation, he had come up with a fairly brilliant idea.

Just before losing consciousness, he manipulated his bones, muscles, and blood flow to escape from the chains.

Simply put, he shrank his body to slip through the narrow passage.

Of course, such urgent manipulation was harmful to his body, but he had to survive first, didn’t he?

‘I thought about using Rebound Qi, but it probably wouldn’t work against that.’

Those were chains made of aura.

That meant not only were they durable, but he couldn’t guarantee that Rebound Qi could destroy such material.

Moreover, techniques like Rebound Qi, Sword Energy, Sword Command, or Sword Strength require a high level of ‘concentration’.

In such a desperate situation, it was fortunate enough to maintain indestructibility; there was no room to use other techniques.

So he felt immensely proud of himself for thinking to apply bone-contracting techniques in that moment when his consciousness was fading.

If he hadn’t thought of it.

‘…I would have died right there.’

Ihan looked at the chains with disgusted eyes.

No, beyond disgust—it was horrifying.

How could such a thing exist?!

“…That’s not something made for education, but a mental energy created after careful consideration of how to kill or torture someone in the most painful way possible, isn’t it?”

It was a reasonable suspicion, but the former Inquisitor denied it.

“You misunderstand. It was created solely for ‘education’.”

“…No matter how I look at it, that’s not true.”

What kind of mental energy is that?

There were no torture devices in his hands.

Yet Albert could torture without them.

He could perform water torture in a place without water.

He could make one feel burning pain without fire.

He could cause frostbite even when it wasn’t winter.

Furthermore, he could recreate the lethargy and pain of illnesses like colds, body aches, or food poisoning.

…But do you know what’s even more terrifying?

‘No matter how I look at it, that can’t be all he can do.’

Sure enough.

“Hmm, you’re correct. You’re quite perceptive. I can recreate about 6,620 different types of pain with my mental energy. There might be some pains I don’t remember, but that’s roughly the number I can definitely recreate, hehe.”

“……”

He was a cruel butler who turned suspicion into certainty, like delivering a coup de grâce.

“Of course, the pain Lord Ihan experienced was prepared with only high-grade ones among the over 6,000 types of pain. I thought anything less wouldn’t be enough to push Lord Ihan.”

“…That’s truly terrifying.”

It seemed he had inflicted terrible pain as a form of recognition, but this time it wasn’t appreciated at all.

It was just terrifying and made his eyes tremble.

And the chilling fact here is…

‘Then, that man deliberately experienced over 6,000 types of torture or pain?’

Albert had declared that he couldn’t recreate what he hadn’t experienced himself.

Since he wouldn’t lie to him and only spoke the truth, Ihan realized this fact and felt a chill run down his spine.

‘Now I understand why everyone in the South fears this man.’

Executing dismemberment alone is one thing, but that’s just a minor factor.

Literally, if he wanted to, he could transmit pain to any target regardless of who they were.

Just as he had felt pain despite his body being solid and indestructible.

A punisher who impartially delivers pain whether to demons or demon kings.

– [Inquisitor] John Ray Albert.

No one fits the profession of Inquisitor better than him.

For there would be no being who could not be interrogated before him…

‘…Should I surrender now, forget about conversation and everything else?’

The knight regretted his choice for the first time in a long while.