Chapter 81: The Reason Why Hero Reina Was Corrupted into a Masochist Dragon

Like the Hero, Reina remembered Tei’s downfall perfectly. After all, she had been sold off by Tei’s own hands, so she remembered the things they had muttered and discussed. In that sense, she might have understood Tei even better than the Hero did.

‘Still, to think I’d be sold to the Empire by the very boy I thought of as a younger brother. I’d steeled myself for anything the moment my life tumbled into ruin, but this is a bit of a shock… Besides, the Hero was captured too. She might be trying to save me right now.’

She couldn’t fathom that the Hero, far from saving her, had been captured by the Four Heavenly Kings and was welcoming a new master.

‘Anyway… is this really Imperial territory…? Looking at this equipment, it’s more reasonable to assume they were swallowed up by the Demon Lord’s Army…’

She looked around. She was completely trapped, bound to a restraint chair she couldn’t escape from. The surroundings were dark, lined with what appeared to be torture tools. Right next to her was a huge barrel filled to the brim with Elixir, a single bottle of which was said to be worth a mansion. Tubes connected the barrel to her neck and chest, dripping the liquid into her one drop at a time. Even as she was being constantly healed, Reina’s heart was shrouded in darkness.

‘Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit~! This is bad! This isn’t a situation I can just laugh off like usual! If these guys are really cooperating with the Demon Lord’s Army, this won’t end with just some masochistic play…!! It’s really, I’m telling you, it’s really… dangerous…!!’

She strained to escape the restraints binding her, but as expected, they wouldn’t budge.

‘That bitch Lina! It wasn’t enough to steal my levels, she put these weakening sex toys on me too…! At this rate, forget being a dragon, I’ll be treated like a worthless lizard…!!’

Her level was too low. Lina had said she’d reduced Reina’s level by about 40, but the weakening devices she was now wearing had lowered it even further. Captured by the Demon Lord’s Army in such a state, there was no way she could escape. Having been captured and subjected to something similar by them long ago, she was, for once, genuinely trembling. Thinking back to what they did then, she knew all too well that this was something that couldn’t be passed off as masochism or some kind of fetish play.

‘The ways they tortured us grew more severe by the day… It was so bad, it’s a miracle I didn’t break… And those guys… again… they’re going to do it to me again…… Dammit… Dammit… No…… N-No… This isn’t the kind of play I want…! Absolutely not…!! I really mean it, noooooo!!!!’

Clack… clack… clatter…

Clatter-clatter… clatter… clack…

The once-unflinching Reina, her face crumpled in tears, began to chatter her teeth.

‘The Demon Lord’s Army is what made me a masochist… They’re the ones who gave me this desire for ruin…!! That’s why this situation is so bad… Their torture is the root of who I am… if they do it again, I’ll definitely break… They’ll implant some new, twisted fetish in me… and I’ll be shattered…!!’

Reina had always wished for ruin, but she knew this was not the kind of destruction she wanted. She strained again, trying to escape.

But it was useless.

“Kugh… Ugh… Uuuuugh… Ugh…!!”

It was an alloy that even the Hero had struggled to escape from, if only for a moment. There was no way a worthless lizard with a lowered level could do anything about it. She struggled until her strength gave out, until her wrists were raw and bleeding, trying to pull free from the restraints on her ankles, wrists, and neck, but it was all for naught.

“K-haaaah… Hah… Hah… Haaaaaah!! H-Huu, heuk…?!”

Finally, exhausted, she slumped in the restraint chair, panting for breath. Just then, they entered the pitch-black room.

“Hic?! Y-You… guys…!!”

“It’s been a while… Red Dragon Reina…”

“Don’t tell me… D-Don’t tell me…… you’re from the Demon Lord’s Army… the Torture Squad…?”

“That’s right…”

“It’s almost nice to see you again like this…”

“Aah… Ah… Aaaah… Goddammit… I knew it!!! I kneeeeeew iiiiiit!!!! Hieeeeeeh!!!”

They were filthy humans, their faces covered in rags. Their clothes were just as tattered, their bodies emaciated, and a toxic aura emanated from them—the residue of countless tortures. The round eyes peeking from behind the ragged masks were bloodshot, clearly not in a normal state. The scissors and kitchen knives in their hands, stained with blood and rust, were more than enough to trigger Reina’s trauma.

“This is the fifth time we’ve met…”

“No… including this time, it’s the sixth, isn’t it…?”

Their voices were weak. With an unpleasant sound like scraping metal, they caressed Reina’s body with fingers that had been pulled out and lost. Reina would have been delighted to be touched by any other man, no matter who or where, but this was different.

“Hic?! H-Hi, hi, hieeeeeek!!! Stop it! N-No! Don’t touch me! Stop it!! No!”

Clank-clank! Clank-clank!

She thrashed desperately, but she couldn’t break free, couldn’t escape those disgusting fingers. The chattering of her teeth grew louder, and her once-confident yellow pupils contracted into a pathetic sight.

“During the war… there was always someone to save you…”

“Thanks to them… the torture… never lasted more than a day…”

“But this time is different…”

“There’s no one to save you… We can take our time…”

“Will you let us hear… your lovely screams…?”

Sliiiide—♡

“Huhieeeeee?!!?!? Hieeeeee!!!! Hic!! Hieeeeeet!!!!!”

CLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANK!!!!!!

Overwhelmed with revulsion, she was already thrashing and squeezing out tears. Knowing she couldn’t escape, she flailed and shook her head like a woman covered in cockroaches. The torturers let out satisfied breaths at the sight, and with every pleased sound they made, Reina’s terror deepened.

‘No no no no no no no!!! Anyone but them, I can’t let them do this to meeeeee!!!!’

CLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANK!!!!!!

‘After I came down from Dragon Mountain!! They were the worst of the worst, the ones who shattered my immense pride!!! The reason I came to rely on the Hero and my companions!!! The bastards who made me realize what a powerless female I am on the surface world!!!! The monsters who made me realize I was just a useless retard without my companions, who made me grateful to them all, who made me vow to annihilate the Demon Lord’s Army—!!!’

To Reina, these people were trauma incarnate. She had met them several times during her long journey whenever she was defeated. It was always their job to take away her fallen comrades or to torture Reina when she fell into a trap. In that sense, the entire Hero’s party feared these people more than the Demon King himself.

‘I should have listened to the Hero, I shouldn’t have acted so cocky, I should have cooperated with my companions—’

—They were the benefactors who had made the prideful dragon Reina cooperate with her companions.

And also.

‘The very root… of why I became a masochist pig…!!’

That was why she had felt safe.

‘The Demon Lord’s Army is gone now… and they… they must have died in the explosion when the Demon King was killed… That’s what I thought…!!’

She was wrong.

Her trauma was alive.

“We heard… that after the Demon King died… you were living quite… spiritedly…”

“Was the peace without us… enjoyable…?”

“Here… without your companions… without the eyes of others… you’re more fragile than anyone…”

“Was it fun… pretending to be strong… while we were away…?”

That last remark flipped a switch.

The memory of screaming every time she met them had demoted Reina from a proud dragon to a mere lizard.

“Huhik… Hik… Hieeeee… Hieeeeee…… Higieeeeee…!!”

The only thing keeping her from begging for her life at this point was the last shred of her pride. She tried to think positively, to enjoy it if she could, but as she trembled and whimpered before this mass of trauma that had suddenly appeared, her captors smiled and stroked her red hair.

“It’s grown long again… Shall we get rid of what’s in the way, ‘just like always’…?”

“Ah… oo… Aaaaaah… Ah… Ah……”

As she continued to scream like a broken clock, a sound reached her ears.

—Snip.

Snip-snip-snip-snip-snip-snip-♡

It was the same sound she’d heard when Lawrence had his way with her, but this time it wasn’t a clitoral circumcision, just a simple haircut. Unlike in Bere, it wasn’t cut prettily. To humiliate her, to kill her pride as a woman, they roughly snipped away, letting clumps of red hair fall to the floor.

‘Again… again…… It always starts like this……’

Clatter-clatter… clatter…

Her teeth continued to chatter, and her breathing grew more ragged. In the small mirror they showed her, she could see her hair was a mess. A clean shave would have been better. Instead, it was long in some places, short in others, with bald patches here and there. It looked less like it was cut with scissors and more like it was torn out by hand, a complete mess that made the word “beauty” a waste.

“It suits you… It really… suits you……”

“We gave you a topknot before… but you cried so much then…”

“Shaving… the center of your head bald… was nice too…”

“And when we left just the sides… like you were balding… that was funny…”

“Such fond memories…”

They were fond memories only for them.

Giving a woman a highway down the middle of her scalp had been the absolute worst.

‘Ugh… ugh… Uuuugh… ugh… ugh… Huuuuuugh……!!’

“Today is a reunion after a long time… so this should be enough for now……”

Just as she expected, Reina’s beautiful hair was ruined. Satisfied, they brushed off the remaining strands. Reina’s hair was a mess, as if she had some disease, and her pride had already been crushed. To drive the point home, they raised a kitchen knife.

“You remember this… don’t you…”

“The one we first used to chop you up… We still… have it…”

“H-Hee, heu… Huuuu… Heuk… Huuuu… Huuuuuugh…!!”

Her hair was a disheveled mess, and now she was being shown a blood-stained kitchen knife. The situation was so terrifying that Reina’s head began to shake.

Shake-shake-shake-shake!!!

She begged them not to, but they didn’t listen. Holding the knife, they gently caressed her fingers, drawing a line. It was a dotted line, as if for butchering, and it’s easy to imagine the look on Reina’s face.

“First… to jog your memory…”

“Shall we have… a little taste…?”

—Sliiice.

“N-No! Noooooot!!!! No-no-no-no-no-no-no!!!!!! I don’t want that k-”

“—Hup!!”

THWACK!

Ignoring Reina’s pleas, the filthy kitchen knife tore through her finger.

“Hu, Hieaaaaaa, haaaaaa?!?!! K-haaaaaa-ahk!!!!!!”

RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE!!!!!!

She thrashed and screamed atop the chair that bound her entire body. For a blade, it was a poor cut, so much so that “tore” was a more fitting description. The sensation converted directly into pain, and foam frothed at Reina’s lips as a stream of bright yellow shot high into the air from between her spread-eagled legs.

“There… there… there…!!”

Slice! Slice! Slice!

“K-guhoaaaaaa-ahk!!!!!!”

Her fingers fell off.

One, two, three, four, five…

As the five fingers fell away in unison, Elixir flowed through the attached tubes, and they began to grow back—

“—K-hoieeeeee-ik!!!!!!”

Shababababababat-!!!

The sight of her screaming and scratching at the chair with her newly grown fingers was utterly wretched. They hadn’t even started yet, but Reina’s trauma had reached its limit. They placed a bucket between her legs to catch the streaming urine, acting as if this had happened a hundred times before.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? This feeling of being sliced up without being able to resist…”

“It’s bearable during battle… but when you’re restrained like this… it feels completely different…”

“Huieeeeee-ahk!!!!!!”

“When… did we ever… do what you wanted…?”

“A self-proclaimed masochist pig… is this all you’ve got…?”

“Self-proclaimed is just that… a fake is a fake, after all…”

“Noooooo-ahk!!!!!”

True to her nature, the pain subsided quickly, but the problem was that this was only the beginning. Her eyes fell upon her former fingers, still twitching on the floor. The torturers picked them up and pressed them against Reina’s cheek and lips.

“Still such pretty fingers… Before… we sliced them… about 200 times, was it…?”

“They made for… good rations……”

“It didn’t cover the cost of the Elixir… but dragon meat is valuable…”

“Hee… heuk… Hieee… Hik… Hiee… Hi… Hieeeek……”

Snap… snap…

Something inside her broke. She began to beg desperately.

“Please save me… Please save me… Please save me… Please save me… I’m sorry… I was wrong… So please……”

“What… were you wrong about…?”

“I-I’m sorry for killing the Demon King… I’m sorry for defying the Four Heavenly Kings… I’m sorry for attacking the Demon Lord’s Army… I’ll do anything… So… please forgive me… J-Just not that… I’ll do anything else… Don’t kill me… Save me… Save meeeee…!!”

“We won’t kill you… Just like last time, we’ll just finely shred you from your fingertips to your wrists…”

“It was only for a day back then… but this time, the Hero and your party aren’t here…”

“This time, a week… no… maybe a month… we’ll take our time……”

“That’s what I said I don’t waaaaaa-ot!!!!!!”

She thrashes, thrashes, thrashes. If she doesn’t thrash, she’ll die mentally.

Even with her masochism and desire for ruin, this was an exception.

This was not the happiness Reina longed for.

“We heard the stories… that you became a masochist… because of us…”

“It seems we had a great influence… on the Hero as well… but you, Reina… we put special effort into you…”

“You were so prideful… it was quite a struggle to break you……”

“You seem to act like your old self on the outside… but are you still afraid of us…?”

“—Hee?! Hieeeeeek!! Heek! Hieeeeee-it!!!”

Nod-nod-nod!!!

She nodded desperately. She begged and pleaded with the unidentified monsters whose faces were covered in rags. If she didn’t act like a weak female and win their favor, it wouldn’t end with just being shredded from the fingertips. From past experience, she knew with bone-chilling certainty that they would do something far worse.

“Is that so… When we heard you’d become a masochist… we thought it was rather cute…”

“To think a hero would end up in such a state… it’s shameful…”

“Indeed… We’re disappointed…”

“We were hoping… you’d boast loudly… about how you wouldn’t submit like before…”

She reacted to that.

“I’m sorry for being a worthless dragon! I’m sorry my spirit was broken! I’m sorry for pretending to be broken! I, Reina, am a weak, weak female! The trauma from back then made me call myself a masochist-aaaaaah!!! So please, save me! If not that, then kill me!!! I hate torture without pleasu-uuuuuu-re!!!!!!”

Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack!!!!!!

Her teeth chattered so hard they sounded like an instrument. These people were different from the others she had faced. Unlike the bandits, they didn’t torture her to satisfy their own lust; they inflicted pain for its own sake. Considering what was to come, it would be better to kill herself right now.

“Still… you really are cute…”

“We thought you’d be puffed up with pride… after defeating the Demon King…”

“So… as a reward… we thought we’d give you a choice…”

“A-A choice…?”

“Yes… We’ll let you choose… your torture……”

The torturers chuckled.

Any choice would surely be awful, but Reina looked as if she had found a ray of light, and she clung to it. In response, they asked her the worst possible question.

“One… as we just said… for one month… we shred you until you go mad… Just like before… starting with your toes, your fingertips, that place… then your wrists, your shoulders, and even your breasts…… Snip-snip… snip-snip… Dragon meat is popular, you know… The soldiers will be delighted…”

“I don’t want that… No… No…… I can’t… No…… I’d rather you kill me……!!”

“Is it your trauma… Well… if you don’t like that…… Two…… Your belly… the child… if you let us abort it…… we’ll stop the shredding after just one week…”

“A-Abor… tion……”

“Yes… We won’t be doing it ourselves… After the shredding is done… the Imperial soldiers will punch your belly… Thump-thump… thump-thump… Splat~♡ Splurt~♡”

“—Hk?!”

The analogy was fucking disgusting.

But compared to the first offer, it was still humane. Nevertheless, the fact that she would still be shredded for a week made not only tears but also snot stream down Reina’s face. Their tone made it clear that this part was non-negotiable. Realizing her life was over, she shook her head with renewed desperation.

“Sh-Shredding… N-No… I don’t want it… Please kill me… Kill… kill… kill me……”

“Using polite language… How cute… Kuhuhu…”

“Eeh… Eeet… Cute female lizard… please save me… please kill me… please save me… please kill me…!! Anything but torture is fine, I’m begging you-aaaaaah!!!!”

If her opponents had been normal people, she would have flirted and flattered them like usual. But trying to act cute in this situation was impossible. As she screamed and begged again, they presented their next option.

“Well then… our next proposal…”

“───!!”

The second offer had reduced the duration of the shredding, so she hoped the next one would be even better, but reality was cruel.

“We’ll give up on the shredding… so… can we carve out your horns… and check if the hole… connects to your brain…?”

“……Ehe?”

The question was delivered like a shy girl handing over a love letter, and Reina’s face turned deathly pale.

“After we pull out your horns… can we insert things like… a drill… a needle… into the hole in your skull…?”

“Fourth… This clit of yours… to see how much it can stretch… can we use a stretching drug… pull on it… and experiment to see if it can wrap around the Empire’s walls…?”

“Fifth… Can we cut off your head… inject Elixir into the torso and neck… resurrect you… and see which one becomes the main body…? If you multiply, can we see how many you can become… and what happens if we link your minds…?”

“Sixth… We’ll transform you into your dragon form… roast you whole in that state… and hold a dragon steak festival every day… Oh, don’t worry… we’ll resurrect you with Elixir after you’re fully cooked… so we’ll roast and revive… roast and revive… a steak festival… would that be alright…?”

“Seventh… While you’re a dragon, we’ll put ignition stones… in your holes… to see how long your heat resistance lasts… Shall we check by roasting you from the inside…? Your uterus… your anus… we’ll make them both explode… see if it leaves a burn… and use gunpowder to see how many shots it takes to make your flame-resistant uterus burst…?”

“Eighth… Your masochistic tendencies… we’re curious how far they can develop… so can we gouge out your eyes, ejaculate into the sockets… and experiment to see when you can start feeling pleasure through those holes…?”

“Ninth… Experimenting to see if you can feel pleasure with your brain… might be nice too…?”

“Tenth… You’re a dragon… if we peel off your skin… it would make for sturdy armor… so can we skin you until every soldier in the Empire can wear dragon equipment… until they are all fully armed…?”

“Eleventh……….”

“──I’LL BE SHREDDED!!!! I’LL BE SHREDDED-AAAAAAH!!!! I’LL BE SHREDDED FROM TOE TO HEAD AND DIE!!! I’LL HAVE THE ABORTION TOO-AAAAAAH!!! I’LL LET THE IMPERIAL SOLDIERS PUNCH MY STOMACH AND ABORT IT-AAAAAAH!!!! SO PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!! ONE WEEK! I-I’LL BE SHREDDED FOR ONE WEEK-AAAAAAH!!!! PLEASE KILL ME WITH THE ABORTION AND SHREDDING-NOOOOOO-T!!!!!!”

Trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle-trickle♡♡♡♡♡♡

As she pissed herself again, wetting herself in terror and begging, the smiles of her captors were plain to see, even through their ragged masks.

“Well then… before we start cutting…”

“For your meal… would you prefer your fingers… or your toes…?”

“Clean… fingers… p-please… My toes… are dirty… I don’t want them…!!”

“Is that so… Then… for three meals a day… let’s enjoy your fingers……”

“The Empire has… many delicious sauces… We’ll grill them, fry them, or serve them raw as sashimi every day… We’ll feed them to you until you break-♡”

“Ugh, ah, aaaah… Aaaaaaa-ah………!!!!”

The kitchen knife was raised high above Reina’s despairing face.

As planned, they would start with her fingertips and toes, then shred their way up.

“So that you can never again… pretend to be fine outside…”

“As the Empire’s toy…”

“We will have you reborn……”

“──Noooooo-t!!!!!!”

But what followed was pure, pleasureless pain.

Back in the old days, her companions would have miraculously come to her rescue, but there was none of that now.

“Aaaaaaa-ah!!!!!!”

Reliving the memories of how utterly brutal it was when they captured and tortured her during her journey to defeat the Demon King, the masochist dragon Reina breaks down even further. Unlike then, this was a long torture from which no one could save her. She had been so broken after being captured and tortured for just a short time; now, redemption was impossible.

This time, she would truly be reborn.

Reborn as a ‘loser’ who could never defy a male or the Demon Lord’s Army, and as a true ‘masochist’ who would accept any and all pain.