TW: Child endangerment, physical abuse, mentions of murder
TL;DR down below!
A handsome middle-aged man with slightly darker orange hair than Yves' own sat in a chair in the middle of the room.
He had the same soft, yet dangerous feeling that Yves had when he smiled. He looked kinder than Yves, even. I tried my best to match the cruel actions that he'd done with the face in front of me.
One third of the children in here were his children, did he say? Well, seeing how handsome he was, no wonder he spread his seed here and there. I barely made myself acknowledge it.
"Are you two the new children we brought in? Who said you were allowed so far down?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I think we came in the wrong place. We were just looking for the leader….."
The leader focused on Yves and walked closer.
"I'm the leader. It seems that the person who was supposed to guide you isn't available at the moment."
The leader said, in a surprisingly kind voice. Yves made me take a step back as he stepped forwards.
Now, it was Yves' job to get the attention of the leader. I was supposed to find the document in the meanwhile, then teleport that to the safe.
When I took hold of the stone to cast the spell, Yves smiled a smile full of childhood innocence and sweetness as he spoke to the leader.
"Wow, you're the leader? Thank you so much for taking me in when I have nowhere to go. It's an honor to be able to work under you."
"....."
"I came after being introduced by Raven. Do you know Raven? He was a friend who begged on the streets me with me, and he bragged so much about how he got a job and a place to sleep here! I really respect you, leader! I was really scared for the future. You're my savior!"
He didn't look like Yves, and he didn't speak like Yves, either. For a moment, I really thought he was somebody else. He even made up a fictional person named Raven to grab the leader's attention. Yves stood, hands held politely in front of him. The leader looked over, gaze crooked.
When the leader approached Yves, he yanked him by the hair. With Yves' hair in his fist, he turned Yves' face around left and right. He peered closely at his face, then threw him down onto the floor.
"I was hoping to get a more serious and obedient child this time. Tsk."
For a moment, I worried that he'd figured out it was Yves in disguise. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case. Yves had been thrown a bit further away, but kept acting.
"What....!"
Yves made an expression as if shocked by the sudden physical abuse, then pretended to tear up.
"Hmm….. Doesn't seem like you'll survive for long, anyway."
The leader put a hand on his chin, seemingly deep in thought. Then, he kicked Yves in the stomach. A resounding thud rang in the air. Yves, who had already rolled on the floor, rolled again. When he coughed a few times in pain, red blood dripped out of his mouth.
It was difficult to see Yves being hurt, so I put the spelled glasses back on. I couldn't let myself be shaken. When I put on the glasses, Yves' blood turned into hearts. My heart, which had been beating restlessly from worry and nervousness and fear, calmed down slightly at the censored image in front of me.
Yves spit out saliva and hearts. The leader watched, pleased, as Yves continued to be in pain.
"I like you a lot more without that smiling mug of yours."
Yves tried to get back up, one arm grabbing onto the floor. The leader stepped on his head.
Like that, Yves continued to get the attention of the leader as he kept talking to him.
To get his attention, Yves would flatter, then attack the leader. He spoke as much as he could to gain more time. The beatings continued.
Yves couldn't attack and continued to just let himself be hit. That was because of the contract. If Yves retaliated against the leader with the intent to betray, the poison would begin to spread from his neck down. That was why he allowed himself to be in such a one-sided fight.
I didn't just stay there, watching as Yves continued to sacrifice himself.
I focused as much as I could on the magic while checking on Yves' state every once in a while. I was scared that he would turn into a cute teddy bear soon, so I made sure to not focus on him completely. I just kept wrinkling my nose more and more because of how much I hated the leader.
Even as he was being hit, Yves made sure to move so that the leader would be turned away from me.
I used my search magic to figure out where the documents were. They were laid on top of his desk. I cheered at how fast we found the documents and went into the room. I tried my best to stay completely silent as I headed towards the desk.
My heart was beating so hard that I could hear it in my ears. If I coughed right now, I felt like my heart would jump out.
It was when I was almost at the desk. When I stretched my arm to grab the documents, the leader had turned his faze towards me.
I held my breath, then naturally took a seat on the sofa next to the desk.
"Oh, what is it this time. Is it another new kid?"
The leader left Yves in the corner and calmly headed towards me. Yves tried his best to buy some more time, but the leader had already gotten bored of him.
Since earlier, I had continued to throw stop spells and slow spells. But none of the magic worked. One of the rings that the leader was wearing was an artifact that protected the wearer's body.
"Oho, black hair and black eyes. Seeing that you look foreign, you're not a royal, and seeing how flat your face is and your lack of eyelid folds, you seem to be a child from the Eastern continent. Did you come in with that othe4r child?"
Yves watched as the leader approached me, the innocent look wiped clean off of his face. Currently, Yves looked a mess. The beige clothes he wore were turning red, just like the color of his hair. But even when he looked so messed up, the loathing and rage in his eyes were vivid. The leader couldn't see it because he was looking at me.
"You look so weak. You'd probably die soon. But it would be a waste to just leave you to die so easily."
He looked at my face as if intrigued. Just like he was inspecting a product, he grabbed my face from under my glasses. Then, with his thumbnail, he kept poking at my eyes. I reflexively closed them.
"I should raise you separately. You're rare. There'd be some merit."
He seemed to think for a moment. Then, he opened his mouth.
"Hmm. Should I just taxidermy you to look at?"
He said as he spread his hand towards me.
Hearing that he would taxidermy me made me breathe deeply. It felt like my heart, which was beating relentlessly, had suddenly turned to stone. It felt like someone had slapped me on the back of my head.
I remembered the leather, the taxidermized monsters and magical species that I'd seen on the way here.
The person in front of me looked so disgusting. I wanted to slice him with the dagger I had hidden on me, but I held it in. I didn't want Yves' betrayal to go to waste. Moreover, I wasn't sure if I could kill somebody.
"….!"
The moment I felt disgusted by the situation, the leader's face shifted to a cute teddy bear.
The blood on Yves' body here and there all changed into hearts. The teddy bear in front of me, wearing hearts, kept scratching at my eyeballs and was rating my apperance.
"...."
I suddenly couldn't find the words to speak.
Stunned, I just stood there with my mouth open. It seemed that the leader was so disgusting that even seeing his face was a source of stress for me. Seeing how the magical glasses I had designed to work with my emotions had censored it for me in the first place.
Instead of the leader, who had looked at me with hateful eyes, there was a teddy bear with orange fur who was looking at me with round eyes. The bear had grabbed my shoulder and was trying to drag me off somewhere when my nervousness and fear just felt like it fell to the floor. My body, which had begun to sweat from my overheating emotions, suddenly cooled.
My eyes were itchy, probably because the leader had touched my eyes without cleaning his hands.
I suddenly stopped as I was getting dragged by the leader. The teddy bear suddenly turned around and tilted his head when he felt me stop.
"Keep following me."
The teddy bear spoke in an angry voice, then grabbed me by my hair with a grip strong enough to rip some out.
Snip.
I was in a disguise anyway, so I just took out the dagger I had and just cut off the hair in his grasp. Then, I calmly raised my head. I had instinctively done so because my head hurt.
".....?"
The teddy bear looked at the hair in his grasp with a dumb look, then looked at me.
"...….?"
I also stared at the dagger in my hand with a dumb look, then looked at the teddy bear.
"....you're holding a dagger. You seem to be familiar with it."
The leader took a few steps back and muttered to himself, looking to be in shock.
Seeing me get dragged by my hair, Yves had struggled to stand back up and walked over to me, then met my gaze.
"Ah...…..we were caught, right?"
Yves seemed to think for a moment before slowly nodding.
When we were searched early, they also searched for any kind of weapon. If I had a weapon on me, it meant that I was someone suspicious.
The cute teddy bear's expression turned into a scowl.
"This…. Eugh, security...…"
He hurriedly took out a red button from his pocket. I broke the button with my dagger before he could press it. I didn't really know what it was, but it just looked like it was something that wasn't going to be of help to me. The leader looked at the button with a desolate stare.
"Security! Security!"
The teddy bear tried to run out the door.
"Security! Security! Umph!"
"You're too loud."
I put my hand over his mouth and prevented him from calling security.
But sadly, I couldn't hold him back for long. When he shoved me away, I was thrown back. I was lacking in strength. It was weird that I was trying to hold him back with a little girl's appearance in the first place.
"A child is a child, as expected. We'll know who brought you here after we torture you."
When I was pushed away without a fight, the leader's expression changed to one of confidence. He once again called for security, then closed the door.
"How disgraceful. Did that bastard Yvnes bring you over? He seemed suspicious these days."
"..."
The leader fiddled with his attack magic ring as he came closer to me. I scowled from where I landed. If I just had enough magic, I could use it to get enough power to fight back. But I only had enough magic to get away from this place.
TL;DR: Yves goes in to distract the leader. He tries to butter him up ("You're so great! I respect you so much!") but because his father is just abusive and stupid and cruel, he just physically attacks Yves. Yves lets himself be attacked because he would die if he tried to fight against him (the magic tattoo that would poison him from the inside out would activate).
Shushu goes in and locates the documents. When she's almost there, the leader sees her. He sees that she's obviously foreign-looking (Western society with an East Asian girl) and thinks he might taxidermy her instead. He grabs her by the hair to drag her away somewhere and Shushu just chops off her hair with her hidden dagger. The fact that she has a weapon on her alerts the leader, and he tries to call security. A fight ensues. Shushu is kinda in danger because she's in the body of a ten year old girl trying to fight off a grown man. The leader asks if Yves ordered her here, because he'd been acting suspicious recently.