The next day, people woke up to two shocking news. A new fire had started in the house of the captain of the city guard and he was missing, as was his wife.
A full-scale investigation was carried out, mobilizing almost every force in the city, from the barracks, the adventurers' guild, and even the baron's guard. Investigations showed that the culprit had used the sewers to move around.
Investigations were made throughout the sewer, but the captain's whereabouts remained unknown. The only thing they found was some smuggling bases from favela gangs.
******
Drip, drip.
Gavin slowly regained consciousness. His vision was blurry and his senses dulled.
"Where I am?" He muttered slowly, finding it difficult to speak. Her body was still numb and her mind was confused. Gavin tried to move but felt his body restrained by something.
He looked down and even though his vision blurred, he saw his body bound in chains. He was sitting on a wooden chair with his limbs chained together. Gavin panicked and started swaying wildly trying to free himself, but he was stuck tight.
The only thing he was able to move was his head, but he couldn't see anything because of the darkness. He also tried to circulate mana, but it flowed wildly through his body.
"Are you awake yet? You aren't the captain of the guard for no reason. Wait a minute, I'll give you some attention." A surprised voice came from somewhere.
As his vision adjusted and adapted to the dark environment, Gavin was able to see his surroundings.
He looked like he was in a natural cave or something built by subterranean monsters. He could see narrow tunnels in the ceiling, walls, and floor, an obvious creation of monsters, due to the total lack of order.
The place was approximately 10 meters wide and 2 meters high, with random items littering the floor. They were mostly miscellaneous items like clothes, tools, weapons, food, and jars with unknown contents.
A child in his early teens was sitting with his back to him, brewing some kind of potion. He looked concentrated as he mixed unknown liquids in a flask of water. A flame floated beneath the vial, fueled only by magic.
"You shit! What did you do to me? Where's my wife?" Gavin screamed, trying to jump at Athos, but all he could do was fall flat on his face. Athos didn't bother to turn around and continued to concentrate on his work.
"...blergh!" Gavin choked on the dirt and had trouble breathing, but Athos just smiled at him. For the next ten minutes, Athos ignored Gavin's grumbles and curses as he enjoyed every second he was choking.
After Athos finished his potion, he turned around and enjoyed it for a few more moments while he suffered. Athos only lifted Gavin when seeing him suffer from his face on the floor lost its fun.
"I'll pick you up, but you'd better not fall again, otherwise I'll interrogate you face down. " Athos said, amused by the captain's irritated face.
"When I get loose, I'm going to smash your face, until it's like your mother cogh's bitch!" Gavin tried to threaten him, but a punch to the neck shut him up. Gavin gasped mid-speech as Athos pulled his face closer.
"Captain, I'm not a patient person, so you better not test me." Gavin was forced to look him in the eye and all he saw was intense, barely contained hatred. Athos looked like he would jump down his throat and kill him at any moment, but he was able to stop himself.
"Cough...cough...where is my wife? What did you do to her?" Gavin asked after coughing.
Athos just smiled at him as he walked away and picked up one of the jars in the corner of the room. He placed it in front of him and opened it without saying anything.
Gavin felt a chill as he looked at the smile on Athos' face. His expression was that of a demon, amused at seeing her suffering. The same expression he wore when he tortured Agatha.
Gavin looked at the contents of the jar, even though he knew he shouldn't, and felt his mind freeze at what he saw. There was a severed hand inside, floating in an unknown yellow liquid. Gavin recognized the ring on their hand. It was the wedding ring he had given her.
"You motherfucker!!! I'm going to kill you!!! I swear I'm going to kill you!!!" Gavin started screaming with all his might. He released the mana contained in the core, not caring about the damage it would do to himself.
His muscles swelled but immediately began to tear. blood ran from his nose as he cried blood and tears at the same time. The chains creaked to hold him, while Gavin roared like a rabid animal.
"Hey captain, do you want to see what's in the other jars?" Athos asked the captain, a crooked smile on his face. He was delighted to see the mixture of hate and despair in Gavin's expression.
Athos took the jars one by one and spread the contents at Gavin's feet. Feet, ankles, thighs, pelvis, forearm, shoulders, and organs were randomly scattered on the floor. It was like a macabre puzzle, created by a psychopath.
Gavin watched in desperation as Athos brought the last jug to him. He had already bruised his throat from the uncontrolled mana, but he kept cursing anyway.
"Captain, play a game with me. If you can guess what's in that jar, I'll let you go." Athos said playfully.
"I'll kill you… I swear it." Gavin exclaimed, spitting blood in Athos' face.
"Wrong answer! The correct answer is..." Athos said as if he were putting on a show. He kicked the jar and it shattered onto the floor, spilling the yellow liquid and the last piece of the puzzle.
A completely bandaged and bloodstained object rolled across the floor. As he rolled, the cloth slowly unfurled, until it came to rest at Gavin's feet. It was a human head. He couldn't see her face because it was facing the floor, but the hair color and even the size were the same as he remembered.
"Honey…I'm sorry." He cried, looking sadly at the head at his feet.
"Wow, you got it wrong twice! You sure as hell didn't become the captain because of intelligence." Athos scoffed at him as if disappointed.
"You shit…" Gavin glared at Athos until he understood what he'd said. "What do you mean I messed up?"
"That's exactly what you heard captain, you got it wrong. The correct answer is..." Athos kicked his head, revealing his face to the captain. "Some nun!"
"More specifically, the nun who tried to arrest me when I woke up in church."
"Who?" Gavin took time to remember who she was, but he failed. "It doesn't matter. More importantly, where is my wife??"
"She's safe, captain." Athos entered one of the narrow passages and brought up a fully gagged body. She was sleeping, even though Athos moved her roughly.
"What did you do to her? Is she okay?" Hope returned to the captain's eyes as he realized she was breathing.
"Of course she's fine, I don't hurt anyone who hasn't done anything to me. After all, even though she is your wife, I, in all my benevolence, judged that she didn't deserve to go through the pain of being dismembered and wore a poison to keep her asleep and allow her to die a painless death.
You may disagree with my decision, but please allow this poor woman to die a painless death." Athos made a miserable face for exactly 3 seconds, before bursting out laughing.
"Did you dismember someone just for that? For a joke?" Gavin was in disbelief at Athos' cruelty. He felt that he was in the lair not of a monster, but a demon.
"Yeah, wasn't it hilarious? At least for me, it was." Athos mocked him. "Captain, how about we play a new game? One with your wife's life as the prize."