Chapter 16

〈 Episode 16 〉Quest 6 : Investigation

The slum, or what appeared to be a back alley, was quite a noisy place. As dawn passed and morning arrived, the street was filled with the noise of merchants selling suspicious goods, beggars, and people working as solicitors.

‘Something’s fishy…’

Asha stared at one place that was unusually quiet amidst the noisy street. The rather spacious three-story building was still and silent even in broad daylight. The sight of no one entering the large building only added to Asha’s curiosity. She decided to investigate the place at night.

As the surroundings darkened, the buildings lit their lamps, and the street was occupied by prostitutes soliciting customers. Men passed by, taking the women who solicited them one by one into the Brothel.

‘So that’s how they take men from the streets.’

The familiar scenery made Asha reflect on her past life as a prostitute when she was a slave. It was a sight she couldn’t have known back then, as she had to be confined within the Brothel without freedom of movement. Regaining her senses, Asha approached the suspicious building, which was still deserted. The people wandering around didn’t notice Asha’s stealthy movements.

Asha opened the building’s shutter and went inside. The inside of the building was as desolate as the outside. There was no sign of people, but there was no dust, which is usually found in an empty building.

‘It’s not an abandoned house either. What is this place? This must be the place I’m supposed to investigate. There can’t be a more suspicious place than this…’

Feeling more uneasy about the building after entering, Asha cautiously walked in, tensing up. However, contrary to her expectations, searching the building didn’t take long.

The building looked fine on the outside, but there was almost nothing inside that should have been there. There were only a few rooms on each floor, and even those were empty.

‘There’s nothing here… Is this not the place?’

Asha became a little anxious as she gained nothing from the investigation. After finishing her search, she went back down to the first floor and pondered. Asha lightly swept the floor with her finger. Not a speck of dust was on her finger.

‘I don’t know how this state is maintained, but it’s not an abandoned building. No dust and such a sturdy building… If there’s no owner, there should be at least homeless people inside. Let’s take another look.’

Asha began to examine the building carefully again. While re-examining the building, she was able to find a suspicious spot on the first floor.

“This is…”

It was a floor where the joints fit together perfectly without any gaps, but Asha felt a subtle difference in the wooden floor she was standing on.

Thump!

When she stomped hard on the floor, it sank slightly. If Asha, who had considerable strength, had stomped properly, the original wooden floor should have been twisted or completely shattered.

‘I’m sure of it! This is it!’

Asha was convinced and stomped again.

Thump, thump! Squeak–

The gradually sinking floor made an unpleasant noise as it tilted downward. When a square passage large enough for one person to enter appeared, she grabbed the hole in the floor and silently entered the passage. After entering under the floor, Asha closed the secret passage’s lid back to its original position and looked around. The one-way passage led somewhere.

‘There’s no one here yet…’

Asha carefully walked through the passage, slowly looking around. After walking for a while, Asha finally found a door at the end of the passage. She paused for a moment to make sure there was no sound, then reached for the door.

Zzzzzzz!

“Kghgh!!”

As soon as Asha touched the door, electricity flowed through her body. A blue light flashed as electricity coursed through Asha’s body, and smoke rose from her hand as the skin burned.

“Ghh…”

Trickle–

Electrocuted by the high-voltage electricity, Asha trembled uncontrollably as she lost control of her body and wet herself. Her nerves paralyzed, she eventually lost consciousness and collapsed on the spot…

“Only a dagger? Where did she come from?”

“Heh heh, is the Thieves’ Guild so stingy these days? Even so, shouldn’t they give at least a penny?”

“That’s what I’m saying. The world is so harsh these days.”

Asha opened her eyes in an unfamiliar place. She was in a small room with two men. The skinny and fat men, at opposite extremes, were chatting, unaware that Asha had opened her eyes.

‘Why am I here…’

Asha soon recalled that she had been electrocuted when she touched the door. She deeply regretted not thinking to wear gloves on her hands, but it was already done.

“Ugh…”

When Asha looked at her left hand due to the stinging pain, she saw burns on her hand and arm that looked like tree trunks. Only then did Asha realize that she was tied to a wooden frame without any clothes on.

“Cough, cough! Haa…”

She soon coughed from the smoke filling the room. Seeing that Asha had regained consciousness, the skinny man flicked cigarette ash into an ashtray and approached her.

“Is the cigarette smoke too strong? So, how did you end up here?”

When Asha shook her head without a word, the man smiled and burned her burn with his cigarette.

“Kghhhhh! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!!”

Asha writhed in confinement from the terrible pain of being burned. Seeing this, the man smiled and said.

“You only listen well when I do something. You have to listen to adults, right?”

“Hic, yes, yes!”

She nodded frantically. Asha felt chills at the sight of the man smiling calmly while probing her festering wounds. The fear that had been imprinted once quickly consumed her, but Asha kept her mouth shut, not knowing what mentioning the quest would bring.

“Hmm… So. Who told you to come here?”

Asha shook her head and didn’t open her mouth.

“Huh? You’re not going to talk? …Silence, I don’t see any signs of training on your body, but this is interesting. It’s going to take some time.”

“Ugh!”

As the man who was interrogating Asha gagged her, another fat man sitting next to him picked up a pair of iron tongs from a corner of the room and pointed to Asha’s ears and chest to the skinny man.

When he pointed to her chest, the fat man brushed water on her nipples with a brush and then clamped the tongs onto Asha’s nipples. She flinched at the pain of her nipples being pinched and saw that the tongs were connected to some kind of bead.

‘This is…’

Only after seeing the suspicious objects the men were holding did Asha see the blood-stained tools lined up in the room she was in. Seeing thin skewers, blood-stained pliers of unknown use neatly arranged, she realized that this was a Torture chamber and her legs trembled.

“Oh, we don’t use such barbaric tools anymore. There are much more efficient methods that don’t leave external wounds these days.”

Asha’s anxiety heightened at the man’s words, who was trying to calm her trembling self. The man wearing gloves pressed down on the bead, and soon a terrible pain spread throughout her body through her nipples.

Zzzzzzz-

“Haaagh!”

A muffled scream escaped from Asha’s gag. The smell of burning flesh and steam spread from her nipples. It was a pain that Asha had already experienced before entering this room, but electrocution was an unbearable pain. The man holding the Torture chamber stopped after operating it for about 5 seconds, then electrocuted Asha again for about 8 seconds.

“Haaagh!”

A sizzling sound was heard, and Asha’s entire body trembled involuntarily due to the electrical stimulation. When the man removed the gag from Asha’s mouth, there were marks on the gag where it had been tightly pressed by her teeth. Asha was half out of her mind from the intense pain that burned her entire body.

“Oh dear. That must have hurt. But there’s nothing like this for an alarm.”

“Ugh? Kyaaa!”

Asha screamed hoarsely from the renewed electric shock. Urine streamed down her legs from the excessive stimulation. Asha panicked and shouted.

“Haa, I’ll talk! Please… Please stop, haa…”

“Oh, really? I could have done more. That’s a little disappointing.”

The man’s sadistic gaze was now completely crushing Asha. Asha’s will to Lucia quickly collapsed in the face of the electric Torture that made it impossible to even control her own body.

‘Lucy, no, it’s scary… Haa…’

She truly wanted to die from self-pity and guilt. The impact of Egret’s abuse in the Brothel was much stronger than Asha thought. Asha was still not free from the memory of surrender, and her body quickly succumbed to the pain in front of her, regardless of her will.

“They told me to investigate… I don’t know who! Really…”

With each word Asha spoke, she felt more and more crushed by the weight of her words. The man’s eyes lit up as he listened to Asha’s words.

“What were you told to investigate? When did you receive that order?”

“To investigate a suspicious place… I received the order a day ago.”

The man tilted his head at Asha’s words.

“You didn’t lie, but you’re hiding something. We need to be more honest with each other…”

“Wait, ugh! Ugh, haa!”

The man gagged Asha again and mercilessly resumed the Torture chamber. The room was filled with Asha’s muffled screams and the foul smell of burning flesh. When the man stopped the machine, she was already unconscious.

Slap! Slap!

Only after he slapped her cheeks several times was Asha able to regain consciousness. Asha’s expression was horribly distorted from the pain and aftereffects of the electric shock.

“Ugh. Ugh, haa… P, please save me. I can’t die here… Please…”

The man’s expression didn’t change as he listened to Asha’s desperate pleas.

“So, is there anything else to say?”

“I see something in front of me. To investigate. They didn’t tell me anything else.”

“What do you see? You didn’t have anything on you, so how did you get here?”

Asha desperately continued to speak, not knowing how to explain the quest and the waiting room.

“I can buy other things in a space where only I can be. I bought food with coins.”

“Hmm, that’s unusual. Really unusual. I believe it’s true. Bin, do you see any signs of mental disorder?”

When the man asked his colleague next to him, the other man replied.

“Seems fine. Pupils are normal too. No signs of drug use either.”

“Her body is quite trained, but she endured quite well even though she didn’t receive any training in Torture chamber. What’s the secret?”

“Well. Doesn’t seem to have any special information. I don’t think we need to waste time here, Ban.”

“Hmm, you’re right. Let’s end my personal interest here. So, you spoke well. What’s your name?”

“It’s Asha. Thank, thank you…”

Asha just trembled, bowing her head and saying thank you for not being tortured anymore. The two men whispered to each other and then left the room, leaving Asha inside.

“Ugh, ugh…”

As soon as the men were completely out, Asha soon dropped her head and lost consciousness.

Asha was forcibly awakened by a sudden pain.

“Haa! It hurts! I’m sorry, I’ll tell you everything!”

“You’re awake? Endure it, we’re still treating you.”

The pain that woke Asha up was due to the liquid that a man she had never seen before was applying to her wounded nipples. Asha shed tears from the pain that felt like her chest was being torn apart.

“Aaaagh!”

Asha’s wounds, where the liquid was applied, slowly healed visibly. She found that the burn on her left hand had also disappeared, leaving only a small scar. Asha questioned why the man was healing her.

“The wounds are all healed… Why me?”

“Normally, we would have just disposed of you, but you’re being released. You’ll be moved to another place soon.”

Asha didn’t know whether to be happy or sad at the man’s words that he had saved her. Right now, she could only feel relieved that she wouldn’t be tortured anymore. The man who had healed all of Asha’s wounds left the room, leaving her alone.

‘I talked about the quest, but nothing happened… Did they just treat me like a crazy person? I have to clear the quest to see Lucia… It seems like it’s already ruined.’

Asha shed tears at her miserable situation. Exhausted in body and mind, she fell asleep again.