On the day the Madman first entered the prison, he could never forget.
As he opened his eyes to an intense headache, he realized that all his severed limbs were reattached.
Well, except for his right arm, so he was a tripod.
Confused by the absence of any restraints on his body, the Madman noticed he was inside a rattling carriage.
It was a dark cargo hold without windows.
‘Are we going to the Imperial Palace? Or maybe the Imperial Police Headquarters?’
No matter how hard he focused his instincts, he couldn’t see outside the carriage.
Mana was completely unreadable.
It felt as though he was completely disconnected from the outside world.
It didn’t take long for him to realize that this was the sensation of an ordinary human.
He had fallen from an immortal transcendent to a powerless human.
As the reality approached him unavoidable, the Madman lost strength in his legs and collapsed.
In the pitch-black darkness, the Madman’s eyes couldn’t take in anything ahead.
The future that was about to unfold was painfully predictable.
As a surviving Majin, the defeated general of a war would bear all kinds of retribution.
Including the burden of the deceased magician.
At least, the Madman believed this without a doubt.
Before long, the carriage stopped, and with a *thud* the door swung open, pouring bright light inside.
“Ugh······.”
“Ugh, what the hell. Damn it, get out!”
Outside was somehow noisy.
The Madman raised his hand to block the light, squinting as he slowly walked out.
And soon he figured out the source of the noise.
“New guy! New guy!!!”
“Guard! What’s that kid doing coming in the big carriage alone?!”
“Is he a son of a noble family? Hahaha!”
“Please let us in! I thought I was going to die for wanting a newbie!”
“Shut up, you trash!!”
Arms were popping out from the gaps in the wooden barriers all around, struggling to grab the Madman’s collar.
With spit flying everywhere, the frenzied scene was so loud it hurt his ears, and the Madman couldn’t fully grasp the situation, only looking around repeatedly.
“Where is this······?”
“Oh. Damn. This kid isn’t an ordinary madman.”
“He’s asking where he is. No way this is the Imperial Palace or the Imperial Police Headquarters······”
With a *splat* sound, the Madman could say no more and ended up with his head plunged into the muddy ground.
As he rubbed his aching head, just as he was about to lift it, the Madman felt something pressing down on him, forcing his face back into the mud.
“Ugh! Ugh······!”
“Seems like he’s a fanatic or a political prisoner sent by Hainkel. Don’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve done, but those trash over there will be very interested.”
*Squish.*
The Madman’s head was forcibly lifted by hair.
His sight, covered in mud, was now filled with repulsive-looking humans cheering at him.
“Looks like you’re not quite awake, so let’s give you a couple hits to buy some time. Use your head. If those trash don’t like you, you don’t want to know what happens. I don’t want to clean up corpses either. Got it?”
“······.”
Only then did the Madman start to understand his situation.
Schlus Hainkel had sent him to prison.
Not to the torture room where the Inquisitor was waiting with a carefully polished saw blade, but to a dirty prison teeming with humans.
“Ha······ Hahaha······.”
“You still don’t get the situation, you madman. Keep this up, and you’ll really die.”
The Madman chuckled incredulously.
*
The first day in prison was rather brutal for the Madman.
As soon as he entered the assigned room, he had to engage in a desperate fight against the rushing inmates.
However, as much as the Madman was trained in combat, taking on multiple opponents was impossible.
With the weak human strength he was still not used to, battling a few inmates who were twice his size was out of the question.
The initiation ceremony turned a bit messy.
Thanks to preparing a somewhat decent self-introduction, he managed to leave irreversible scars that would only amount to tattoos.
He had boasted about how he, a Majin, had started a war by treating humans like bugs, but that would have resulted in a special welcome ceremony that could’ve left him with permanent disabilities.
Life in prison was a continuous series of hardships and trials for the Madman.
He had never thought of himself as a small-built person, but facing bulked-up humans made him reconsider.
Although he had been a Majin just days prior, he wasn’t clueless enough to dig his own grave.
To survive, he had to constantly watch his surroundings and maintain a tight grip on his nerves.
Of course, that didn’t lessen the love that the veteran prisoners had for the fresh meat that had recently entered their overcrowded prison.
Still, the Madman began to adapt to prison life fairly quickly.
Ironically, what saved him was the martial arts he hadn’t been able to use during his first-day initiation ceremony.
With a penalty that was difficult to even language, a death match was forcibly held among the newcomers, and the Madman went on a winning streak, earning the nickname “Mad Dog.”
Thanks to that, he gradually improved his position in the eyes of the veterans.
After three months, he found himself among the ruling group.
As he became friendly with the guards and made it easier to smuggle in outside goods, he even started a small business with the white powder that drove inmates crazy.
It was a time when he was building relationships and slowly accumulating some capital.
*Boom······!*
“Lightning?”
“What’s that? Some light is flickering?”
A thunderbolt struck in the north.
A large bolt was so bright it was visible even from a distance.
And then the Madman’s eyes widened as he saw a purple light descending like a curtain from the sky.
He instinctively realized something was happening.
The war was over.
All the power of the Majin was gathered in one place.
And an absolute being was born.
“Mad Dog! You have a visitor!”
“A visit for the Mad Dog? That’s a first, isn’t it?”
“Exactly. Hey, Mad Dog. Who is it?”
“······.”
The next day, Schlus Hainkel came to see the Madman.
Seeing Schlus’s face, the Madman let out a quiet sigh.
What he desperately hoped wouldn’t happen was now reality before his eyes.
Schlus Hainkel had truly returned with powers rivaling a god.
“You seem to be doing well.”
“Everything······ is over······.”
“Yes. Tiltitz, the Traveler, Alexia. They’re all dead. I came to tell you that.”
“······.”
The Madman’s head dropped.
Feeling a tinge of bitterness, he managed a faint smile.
He was relieved only one person had to suffer this humiliation.
“I thought a lot about your fate, Madman. But no matter how much I think, I can’t find an answer, so for now, I decided to keep you in prison and think.”
“······?”
He hadn’t jailed him to torture him?
Was he just left there because he needed time to think?
All the humiliations he endured during those days of neglect flashed through his mind.
He had to feel every pain and shame that a human could feel.
Realizing that the true punishment had yet to begin, the Madman felt something bubbling up deep inside his chest.
“Madman. You seem to be doing well. Did I mention this before? Well, anyway. I mean it when I say you look good. Just look at you. How human and good-looking you are.”
“What?”
The Madman couldn’t hide his confusion as he carefully examined himself.
Wearing a filthy prisoner uniform, his body smelled from not being washed for days.
His limbs were covered in scars and bruises.
His back ached all day.
And even his butt, which still hurt from all the torment he received during his rookie days.
His appearance was a far cry from who he was when he was still a Majin.
“I’m human?”
“Yes. You’re free now, Madman. From what I see, you already seem to be fully human.”
“······.”
While in a daze, the Madman found himself being dragged by the guards to change his clothes and walk outside.
The door slammed shut behind him with a *thud*.
The Madman carefully approached Schlus, who was smoking a cigarette, and slowly spoke.
“What exactly is going on?”
“What’s going on? Tsk. Your breath stinks. Get lost.”
“What should I do from now on?”
“How should I know, you brat? Am I your mother?”
“······.”
Schlus’s finger poked the Madman’s forehead.
For a moment stunned, the Madman then turned away from Schlus.
The one who had fallen from being a transcendent to a human he so despised and reviled, started to walk away.
“Huh?”
One step. Then another step.
With each step, familiar memories began to resurface.
Only then did the Madman realize what Schlus had just done.
Schlus had made it so the Madman could no longer forget anything.
If there was something forgotten, it was restored.
The memories of his hundreds of thousands of years as a Majin that could never be fully contained in a human body began flooding back vividly into the Madman’s mind.
“Ah. No······.”
Only then did the Madman fully comprehend his situation.
As the blessing of oblivion over the past three months vanished, the curse of memory came crashing down upon him.
Vague anger towards humans quickly turned into powerlessness and gradually morphed into self-loathing.
At that moment, the Madman finally understood the true significance of his fall from a great being to a small being.
“Hik. Ugh. Hihihihik.”
The Madman was no longer in his right mind.
He walked aimlessly deeper into the dark forest, letting out strange laughter.
