—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“What is this place? Is this where we’re staying? Everyone’s here!”
Sen, who was crouching in the corner while May was kicking the cell bars in frustration, calmly began to explain.
“This is a prison. It seems to be located inside Batian, probably underground. And the Chokugen Faction, the group I used to belong to…”
“Yeah, I get it! You already explained earlier! Why has this kid become so timid?”
Sen was spewing out the information she knew like an encyclopedia reciting dictionary definitions.
“It’s okay.”
Although she pretended not to be, it was clear that Sen was feeling down, so Rin went to her side and held her hand tightly.
The reason Sen was acting this way was because she thought she was somewhat responsible for them being dragged here.
After all, it was the Chokugen Faction that brought everyone to this prison, and she had been a member of the Chokugen Faction.
As Rin gently held her hand, Sen made a resolution in her heart.
‘For now, I must save everyone here no matter what.’
From the moment she was caught by the Chokugen Faction after betraying them, her life was already as good as gone.
Then, she had to somehow save the lives of the others.
Sen now admitted that this wasn’t a simple mission.
‘I want to save them.’
She wanted to save them.
She didn’t know why, but she felt that way, and it was more than satisfactory as the final goal before ending her short life.
“More importantly, what are they planning to do with us after capturing us?”
Ares muttered while gripping the cell bars and looking around the corridor outside.
He was checking if anyone was there, but he couldn’t sense any presence.
Perhaps because of that, his voice tone, which had been low due to tension, returned to its original beautiful tone.
“I don’t know. Ah, shit, I wonder if Lucia is okay?”
Even in this situation, May was worried about Lucia, who had escaped to the cathedral.
Ares unknowingly asked while looking at her.
“May, you seem to have changed a lot.”
“Huh?”
“You’re different from before.”
“……”
May twisted her head, feeling a strange sense of shame.
Come to think of it, wasn’t Ares the guy she had one-sidedly loved before?
If it were her foolish days of the past (at most a few months ago), she would have tried her best to look good in front of Ares even in this situation.
“Hmm.”
Slowly leaning against the cell bars, she shoved her hands deep into the pockets of the hooded sweatshirt she was wearing.
She felt the texture of the last remaining candy wrapper on her fingertips.
She quickly took it out, skillfully tore open the wrapper, put it in her mouth, and looked at Ares.
“Hmm.”
“What’s wrong?”
Ares touched his cheek with his hand, wondering if something was on his face as May stared at him intently.
Looking at him, May nodded her head.
“I was just thinking it’s quite funny.”
“Huh?”
When it came to liking someone, appearance was naturally an important part.
That thought still hadn’t changed for May, but if there was a difference from a few months ago…
‘I can’t believe I tried to like someone based solely on their appearance.’
It was unreasonable to love someone with just that.
Was it truly love in the first place?
She thought it was closer to the desire to possess something that others wanted, like a brand-name bag, ring, or necklace.
‘Well, who knows now.’
Unfortunately, even May, who was the owner of those feelings, could no longer define them.
They had already disappeared as if the stains had been washed away.
“You have eye boogers.”
“Huh?”
May smiled and gave a warning, and Ares hurriedly checked the corners of his eyes in surprise.
Without a moment of hesitation, May turned her gaze away and sighed.
‘I miss him already even though it’s only been a few days.’
Watching May crunching on her candy, Rin gave her an eerie smile.
“No way.”
“What?”
“You have no room to interfere.”
“Huh?”
She had no idea what she was talking about.
May, who was so angry that a vein was about to pop out on her forehead, tried to argue back…
“Someone’s coming.”
At Ares’ warning as he removed his eye booger, everyone tightly shut their mouths and focused their gazes outside the cell bars.
Since it was a brick corridor in this basement, it was natural for footsteps to echo, but he didn’t make even the slightest sound as if he was asserting his pride.
A man with his mouth covered by a white hood.
Unlike the other man who followed behind him, his hood had a red pattern drawn on it, signifying he was the leader.
“Sen, long time no see.”
“Boss.”
Sen naturally let go of Rin’s hand, stood up, and slowly approached the cell bars.
It wasn’t a good situation to exchange greetings, so Sen got straight to the point.
“I understand about me, but why did you capture the others like this?”
“You’ve become quite talkative. Do you think I’ll answer that?”
“……”
“The reason you’re not being executed immediately despite being a traitor is so that you can be executed in front of everyone. Everyone in the Chokugen Faction, including you, will witness the process of your intestines being pulled out while you’re alive and thrown to the pigs.”
The boss spoke about Sen’s future like a prophet, but the ones who angrily responded were the other two girls.
“Yuck, do you even wash your mouth after saying such things?”
“You’re really talking recklessly.”
May expressed intense irritation, and Rin subtly gave a warning.
However, no one was unaware that it was the end no matter how fiercely a beast roared inside the cell.
Although his eyes were covered by the hood, they could tell from the slight uplift of his eyes that the boss was sneering.
“How you’ll be treated will be decided from now on. The client said he would use you to make a deal with someone.”
“Deal?”
When Ares asked back, feeling the word choice stuck in his throat, the boss nodded.
At this point, Sen couldn’t help but wonder about the reason the boss had come here.
“Isn’t it the iron rule of the Chokugen Faction not to talk about the client?”
The boss was currently talking about the purpose of the client’s request, and that was clearly the opposite of the Chokugen Faction’s principles.
But the boss was confident.
“The Chokugen Faction has no eternal allies or enemies.”
“……!”
Sen, who had once been a part of the Chokugen Faction, could immediately understand what that one sentence meant.
‘It means there’s another client who ordered them to investigate the client who asked for us to be kidnapped.’
Moreover, seeing how he was moving without any hesitation despite the risk of losing trust with the existing client, it seemed like he had solid backing.
“Daniel McLean.”
In the end, realizing that they had no intention of saying anything, the boss revealed his own card first.
Everyone couldn’t help but be surprised at the unexpected name.
“He’s the target of the client’s deal. I only heard that he single-handedly took care of the Tudogs, but perhaps you know something about him…”
“Hey.”
Naturally, the one who interrupted the boss’ words by kicking the cell bars with a loud bang was the short-tempered May.
“Shut up before I rip your mouth apart. Who are you to mention his name?”
As if to support her words, Sen added.
“You won’t be able to get anything about Daniel from us.”
“I don’t…”
Ares quickly raised his hand, trying to say something, but Rin’s fist instantly struck his abdomen, so what came out of his mouth was about to be vomit, not words.
Honestly, Ares wanted to escape this situation even if it meant selling information.
“J-Just kidding!”
As Rin was about to throw a few more punches, he had no choice but to forcibly lock his mouth while making a surrender sign.
In the end, the boss, judging that he couldn’t dig up more information, left, but an even more serious atmosphere than before lingered inside the prison.
“Fuck.”
May unknowingly blurted out a curse and covered her mouth, saying “Oh my,” but…
“Fuck.”
She cursed again.
It signified that the situation was going in the worst direction she didn’t want.
“…… Fuck.”
Sen, who was next to her, also sneakily tried it out.
Sen, who usually didn’t curse, tried it to see if this suffocating feeling would be relieved a little, and it was surprisingly quite good.
“Sen! You shouldn’t say such things carelessly!”
“Even her cursing is cute.”
Rin and May showed opposite reactions.
Rin covered Sen’s mouth with her hand as she tried to say it one more time.
“He said he’s going to make a deal with Daniel? Using our lives?”
As Ares muttered as if organizing the situation, May and Sen’s expressions became even more grim, but…
Here, Rin raised her hand.
“Hey, I have a way to escape this prison. With all of you.”
As soon as Rin removed her hand from Sen’s mouth, Sen immediately muttered “Fuck” like a doll, and Rin glared at May for teaching her something bad.
“Yeah, I get it, so what’s the method?”
When May urged her, acknowledging that she had taught Sen something bad, Rin slowly unbuttoned the front of her chest.
Of course, she didn’t unbutton everything like when she showed Daniel before, but even that much made Ares, who had one-sidedly loved her, breathe a little roughly through his nose.
“Where are you looking!”
“Aaaagh!”
It was May who immediately poked Ares’ eyes, causing him to roll on the floor.
Rin, who sincerely expressed her gratitude, pointed with her hand to the pattern drawn on her cleavage.
“It’s a pattern drawn on me by an entity called the god of death. I can put people in and out of it.”
“Put people in and out?”
“Are you a human drawer?”
Sen looked surprised, and May shrugged her shoulders, saying it was absurd. But Rin sighed and slowly poured her power onto the prison floor.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to take you by force.”
“……!”
“Hey! Wait! Wait a minute!”
“My, my nooose!”
Sen and May distanced themselves from Rin, but after all, this cramped prison cell was inside.
There was nowhere to run from the dark energy.
“I can’t let Daniel get hurt. No one can have Daniel. I’m sorry to you guys, but…”
With unfocused eyes, Rin slowly reached out her hand.
“To me, Daniel is the most important.”
For a moment, the deepest darkness of the continent reached out towards the three people.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
From the shadows of a building without sunlight, a black-haired girl appeared, and soon, the dark energy flowing from her chest began to take on human forms.
“Ugh! Ugh!”
“Aaaargh! You crazy bitch!”
“……”
The three people who had been engulfed in darkness reappeared in an alley in Batian.
Except for Ares, who had fainted, Sen and May were roughly exhaling.
Although there was no pain, directly witnessing their entire bodies melting was an experience that would never happen again in their lives.
Of course, it was also an experience they never wanted to have again.
Moreover, being trapped inside Rin felt indescribably bizarre.
“Ugh, bleh!”
May was about to slap Rin’s cheek right away, but instead, Rin was vomiting against the wall, pouring with cold sweat.
“What’s wrong? Why are you like this?”
With a look of not understanding the situation, May’s palm, which was about to hit Rin’s cheek, patted her back instead.
Rin wiped her mouth with a handkerchief and fixed her hair that was stuck to her cheeks due to cold sweat.
‘It was a huge burden because of Ares.’
Despite Sen and May’s worried voices, Rin’s gaze was solely focused on the unconscious Ares.
Originally, it was difficult to hide a body in the darkness, but it was accompanied by headaches and dizziness because of Ares, who had been chosen by the god Helios and had a divine mark.
Thanks to that, she couldn’t get far from the hotel where the prison was located.
Rin took a deep breath and told the two.
“That hotel is where we were imprisoned. For now, take care of Ares. Run aw…”
Crash!
Despite the urgent situation, Rin had no choice but to look at where the sound came from, cutting off her words.
The window on the highest floor of the hotel shattered, and a person wrapped in curtains fell out.
Surprisingly, the person was someone the three of them knew.
“Boss?”
The man called the boss, who had just visited their cell, had fallen out of the window and was writhing in pain with his body twisted in a grotesque manner.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
