Chapter 56
“Ughhh…”
Fortunately, it seemed the old man wasn’t dead yet. Groans were coming out as he tried to get up, leaning on the sofa.
Crack.
“Ugh, heave…!”
Just by the sound of his voice, I could tell how badly he had hurt his back.
‘Hmm… he told me to sit, so I guess I should just stay put?’
In situations like this, it’s best to be still. But it seemed someone else had a different idea.
Swoosh.
A person popped out from the old man’s shadow. A man with a blank expression approached the groaning elder, reaching out his hand as if to help.
“Ahhh, ahhh… Don’t touch me! Leave me alone!”
The old man was in so much pain he refused even a helping hand. He angrily pushed the man away. Staying put was indeed the right choice; if I had tried to help, I could have been the one getting cursed out over there.
The man who approached only flinched and stared at the old man without moving.
“Huff, huff…”
I quietly lifted my hands to cover my ears. I didn’t want to hear the old man’s moans.
‘Geez, maybe I should apologize since it was kind of my fault?’
A guilty conscience spiked but quickly sank back down.
‘If he brings it up, I’ll apologize. If he hasn’t noticed yet, it’s not my fault.’
In the world of comedy, this was about as far as conscience goes. Listing sins and getting forgiveness was a privilege reserved for good-looking folks only.
Since I was blocking my ears, I couldn’t hear the old man’s groans. With nothing else to do, I started checking out the patterns on the floor. At first, I just spotted five patterns that looked like people.
But then, at some point, those five patterns started a dramatic love triangle. I stared blankly as one pattern exclaimed, “Actually, I’m pregnant,” while another confessed, “…I have something to confess too. I’m sterile. I’ve had sperm issues since I was a kid.”
‘What a catastrophe.’
While I was zoning out, I noticed the old man finally managing to sit up straight. I quietly lowered my hands away from my ears.
“Ughhh…”
The old man groaned, clutching his back.
“Darn it…”
As he cursed and our eyes locked, his once scrunched-up face suddenly turned beet red. He seemed a bit embarrassed.
‘He’s quite the shy one, isn’t he?’
Just then, the old man grimaced and motioned toward a man standing by the sofa. The man pulled out a palm-sized potion bottle from his outfit. A recovery potion, it seemed.
Without hesitation, the old man popped the lid and chugged the entire contents down.
“Krhh…”
He tossed the empty bottle back at the man and then quickly glared at me. Feeling a bit guilty, I nonchalantly looked away.
*
Creak.
Bansook gritted his teeth while glaring down at Lian, who was sitting on the floor.
‘Of all times for the chair to tip over..!’
He was a man who lived and died by his pride. He carried a fancy cane and kept his serving slaves hidden in the shadows for that very reason.
His so-called ‘pride’ was utterly crushed in front of Lian. Bansook envisioned Lian snickering at him in his mind, and the veins around his eyes bulged.
‘I just wanted to greet him briefly and send him back… but this won’t do.’
I really need to teach him what kind of guy I am.
Bansook’s cruel smile was directed at Lian as he signaled the man beside him. The man wasted no time and hoisted Lian onto his shoulder.
“Ahhk…”
Just when Bansook tried to leap up from the sofa, a sharp pain shot through his back, and he winced but managed to stand up gradually. The potion must have been effective, as the pain wasn’t as bad as before.
“Darn it, darn it!”
Muttering curses didn’t erase the groans that involuntarily followed. At that point, the man returned with the cane that had fallen.
The fancy cane represented his wealth and confidence, but today, it was fulfilling its original purpose.
Tap tap.
Bansook leaned on the cane, taking steps toward a hallway connected to the living room. At the end of the corridor hung a painting of a basket of apples. When he tapped it with the cane…
Creak.
The painting swung open like a door, leading to a pure white corridor.
As he walked along the white corridor, a few doors appeared. Bansook headed for the door at the very end. The man silently moved ahead and opened it for him.
Inside, everything was blindingly white, and a metal chair sat in the middle. The armrests and legs of the chair were strapped with leather belts, stained with dried blood.
In front of the chair stood a black trolley filled with ominous-looking torture devices.
The man carrying Lian casually tossed him into the metallic chair and secured his wrists and ankles with leather belts attached to it.
Bansook flashed a twisted smile at Lian.
‘Now you’re starting to get the picture, right? What kind of despair and screams are you going to show me?’
After the man finished fastening the belts tightly, he stepped aside. Bansook swallowed hard, eagerly waiting for Lian’s terrified expression.
“Hmm.”
“…?”
Lian was calmly scanning the room, his face displaying nothing but curiosity. It was a situation he’d never encountered before, and Bansook lost his words as he stared at Lian.
‘Managing this one is going to be quite the headache.’
Lian wasn’t clueless about what was going on. The dried blood and torture tools made it pretty clear what was about to happen. He simply wasn’t scared at all.
Weren’t adults who threw tantrums about visiting the doctor when they were kids now doing so without a second thought? Lian felt exactly like that.
What’s the big deal when you’re not in much pain, and it’s not life-threatening? No reason to feel afraid.
Creak.
To Bansook, Lian’s behavior felt challenging.
‘Too dumb to understand the situation, I see.’
Usually, toys meant for play were brought here and left tied up for a few hours. Watching a slave shiver in fear in a purely white room was quite entertaining.
But it didn’t seem like those tactics would work on Lian at all. He confidently stepped forward. Then the man next to him smartly moved the trolley next to Bansook.
“You really still don’t get it, do you?”
Bansook plastered a fake gentle smile on, like an old man who just baked fresh cookies. Lian’s gaze shifted toward him.
Swish, Bansook handed the cane to the man. Thankfully, the potion must’ve worked, as he didn’t feel back pain anymore.
Clatter.
He picked up a pair of pliers from the trolley, crusted with dried blood. After opening and closing the pliers a few times, he grabbed Lian’s hand.
Even someone with a little common sense would clench their fist out of fear when realizing something was off. But Lian calmly extended his hand as if he had no clue what was about to go down.
‘How long is he going to keep this up?’
With a sinister grin, Bansook clutched Lian’s fingernail with the pliers. His lips began to twist in a disconcerting way.
Imagining a scream so loud it would rattle eardrums gave him a thrill. Bansook licked his dry lips and squeezed the pliers.
“Kuheuheu…”
A rush of glee erupted from between his lips, and simultaneously…
Pop!
With a cute sound, the fingernail came off.
“…??”
Riddled with confusion, Bansook’s eyes filled with question marks.
“…????”
When faced with an incomprehensible situation, denial is the first reaction.
‘Ah, well… guess I pulled it out wrong.’
Despite the thumb’s nail being clamped in the pliers, for Bansook, his denial was more comforting than reality.
Snap.
He tossed the thumb’s nail aside and grabbed the index fingernail with the pliers.
‘This time will surely work…!’
Pop!
Again, a sound as adorable as a baby’s shoe echoed, and the fingernail was pulled out. But not a single drop of blood sprayed, and the spot where it was meant to be still had a perfect nail.
“…?!?!”
Bansook contorted his face absurdly as if he had encountered the impossible.
Pop, pop! Pop! Pop pop pop!
“Gasp, gasp… gasp!”
Bansook, unable to accept the reality, frantically pulled out more of Lian’s nails, but all he could hear were his own gasps, not Lian’s screams.
Gasping from lack of breath, Bansook caught Lian’s gaze. Lian… looked back with pitying eyes, like he was watching an old man desperately shuffle to grab the morning newspaper.
Clatter!
That look flipped a switch in Bansook, causing him to chuck the pliers to the ground and rummage wildly through the trolley.
‘Don’t… don’t feel sorry for me! How dare you, a mere slave!’
In a frenzy, he picked up a knife with a serrated edge and plunged it into Lian’s thigh.
Thud!
“…! Ha!”
This time, without any strange sound effects, the knife properly pierced through flesh. The sharp scent of blood seemed to comfort the sweat-drenched Bansook.
‘Now you realize what situation you’re in -….’
Fwhoosh!
Blood erupted from the thigh like a fountain, as if an obstruction had finally been cleared.
“Gasp…!”
Bansook jumped back in shock, tripping over his own feet.
Crack!
“Kuhuck?!”
His recently injured back gave out, and Bansook collapsed onto the floor.
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