[Garl's POV]
All that the man named Garl Jegar desired now was 'power.' Power to be able to stand among the ones at the top, among the ones who actually mattered in this world. To be able to take what he needed. To do what he wanted. To…
"Dear…"
"Daddy~"
To…
"DEAR!!!"
"DADDY, HELP! Nooo...!!"
… To take revenge on people who killed his family in cold blood.
For love.
For vengeance.
He wanted more power.
He wanted to judge the sinners for their crimes without fearing any repercussions.
"Garl, you bastard. I told you many times to not get in the way of our clan. You didn't listen. Now, look. You got your family killed."
Garl still remembered the crooked faces of the scum who killed his family, right in front of his eyes. All because he didn't give in to their threats.
Though, a part of him regretted it, since his courage(read: arrogance) got his family killed right in front of his eyes.
"… I will kill you. I will kill every last one of you…"
His low growl didn't feel threatening when he was tied to a tree, helpless, bloody, and battered while watching the corpses of his wife and daughter burning along with his house.
"Ahahaha! Look at him still acting tough… You son of a bitch, a mere C-rank thinks he can take on an entire clan? Haha! Dream on, fucker!"
"I will kill you… All of you. I'll kill you! You fucking bastards!! I'll kill every last one of you…!!!!"
He woke up with a jolt, feeling intense pain somewhere.
"Aaagh! Fuck!"
It took him a little while to get out of his daze, the pain helping a lot, realizing it had all been a dream, no, a nightmare.
As soon as his senses returned, he found himself tied. AGAIN!
"The hell—"
"Good, you're up."
Hearing a voice, he jerked and immediately turned to see someone standing right in front of him, a little further away from where he was chained.
A man whose identity was hidden from him.
He mustered his streght trying to free himself of the bondage, but to no avail.
"Who the fuck—"
*SMACK!*
When he instead tried to talk, or rather snarl, his words were cut short by a sudden punch in his gut.
"—gah! Fuck!"
Wincing a bit, he glared at the person standing in front of him, desperately trying to get himself out of his binds and return the punch 10 folds. But as much as he tried, he couldn't get rid of the chains. They were too sturdy, even for a Tier-4 like him.
"You bastar—!"
*SMACK!*
Another one of his attempts to cuss the masked man went in vain as another punch knocked the air out of his lungs.
"Ugh! You—"
*SMACK!*
Another punch hit him right in the face, shaking his jaw.
He felt that one more than the others and groaned again. But before he could say anything, more punches came flying in; each punch packed with the strength of a Tier-4 and each one more vindictive and ferocious than the last.
He had to suffer a dozen or so more punches before the sudden onslaught finally stopped. Then came the voice of his assailant.
"Listen here, you fuck. I don't have time for your bullshit. I don't wanna hear you curse and threaten me. It won't work. Got it?"
Garl, bruised a little and in slight pain looked at the person who spoke that and was also the one who was beating him like a punching bag.
He couldn't see much of the man's features, especially his face which was covered by a wooden mask. But what he could see was the fiery golden eyes of his assailant almost glowing in the dark—he noted that in his head. And the bizarre fury they held for some reason—he took a note of it, but it was unclear what had caused that fury.
He couldn't tell why and how, but he immediately got the gist of things. He was currently a captive, held in the very same cell he'd had the children locked he kidnapped locked in. His men were missing. So were the kidnapped children. The only ones present here were himself and the golden-eyed, beast-masked man.
"What do you want?"
He held back a growl and spoke, cautiously trying to buy time to think of a way out and to also know the intention of his assailant.
He now remembered going unconscious after hearing a husky feminine voice. And so, he could hazard that this man was likely with that woman. Why had he tied him, though? They could have simply handed him and his men to the knights since this case was a simple case of kidnapping. Or at least that's what he'd made it look like.
There was more to it, he knew. But the man in front of him had yet to speak. So, shutting his mouth, he listened. And waited. For his chance to get free of the chains. Then, he would teach this bastard in front of him and his female partner a lesson. They shouldn't have messed with his plans. He was already pissed even before this, but now… now his anger was a volcano ready to burst. Someone will pay for fucking with his plans. And he knew exactly who.
"I want to know who you are working for. And how the hell did you manage to kidnap so many children so easily. Just those questions will do. After that, we'll go our own ways. Me to where I have to go and you to the knights so that they can escort you to your rightful place, the prison."
Now that Garl had gotten a hold of himself, he started to notice a few details about the man in front of him.
'This bastard is young.'
Probably around 20, if he had to guess from the barely visible frame of the man and his deep muffled voice.
"And why should I tell you that?"
He finally decided to test the waters, seeing how much wiggling room he was given by this young and likely inexperienced bastard. There was no way he could just give him all the info as it is. That would be a sure-short way to get killed by 'them.'
The result, however, was another flurry of punches in his face and abdomen.
He gritted his teeth, taking in the one-sided assaults. He couldn't retaliate even if he wanted to.
'Grr! Fuck! This bastard! I'll kill him!'
His treats didn't leave his tongue though. The punches kept getting more and more vindictive. Enough to make him feel some serious pain.
"Gaah! Fuck! Stop! I'll tell you!"
Finally having enough of beating, he relented. Or at least pretended to be.
'As if I'll tell you, you bastard.'
"I was working with my gang and we were going to sell the children to make some quick cash—Gaahhhh!!!"
He couldn't continue as he felt a steep pain in his thigh. His left thigh was already bleeding and stinging from the stab wound that had woke him up. He was ignoring it till now since he had more important things to look for. But now the masked man had stabbed his right thigh as well.
"Fuckkk!!! What the hell, you bastard!! I answered your question!"
"You think I'm some idiot who'll buy into your bullshit? Tell me which demon you are contracted to. No, actually, you don't have the demonic mark on you yet. So, you're still not contracted yet. But surely you know one. I know you do. So, which one is it? Is it Tragloth?"
Garl felt his blood freeze as he stared in disbelief at the masked man who had suddenly untangled all of his plans and accurately guessed his Patreon. He knew about 'them.' He knew about the circle!
'H-How?! Fuck! Who the hell is this guy?! Nobody's supposed to know about 'their' existence yet. Damn it…'
He grimaced internally but had already hidden his expressions on the outside. Alas, his initial shock had been a dead giveaway.
"It's him, isn't it? Did he offer you something you couldn't refuse? Or was it his 'circle' who did? Either way, the offer surely must have come from him regardless of who spoke to you. Did you seriously believe their words? HIS words? Hah!"
The masked man spoke in disdain, berating him for believing in their words. He frowned, still half-trying to guess how he knew all this and half-getting angry at his disdainful tone.
"I don't know what nonsense you're talking about. I know nothing about demons. My buyers are all humans."
Even if the cat was out of the bag, he couldn't just admit to it. So, he stuck with playing ignorant and telling half-truths. However, the masked man continued his analysis and berating of his demonic Patreon.
"That bastard is just a Baron-ranked demon. He can't do shit with his mere above-average strength and is constantly scared for his life in the Empire that is filled with powerhouses and Monarch-tier beings. He'll be dead the moment he comes out of his hiding hole. How the hell did you buy into HIS lies? The dude looks and talks like a shitty salesman. What did he promise you? Was it revenge on the Mad Draugr clan who killed your family? Or did he promise to revive your dead wife and daughter?"
Garl was begrudgingly listening to the masked man's disdainful verbal bashing, but he couldn't hold back when the masked man started talking about his dead family.
"SHUT UP! Don't talk about my family, you scum!"
"Pfft. Scum? Me? Ahahaha! What a good joke…"
The masked man only laughed at his threat, making Garl grit his teeth in utter frustration. It reminded Garl of the dream he'd just woken up from. It was just like that day. He was tied and the man in front of him beat him and berated him.
"… Listen here, you piece of shit."
But he had to reconsider the similarities when he felt a sudden change in the masked man's voice and demeanor. He was no longer laughing at his tied self and talking foul about his family and himself. He was dead serious and his voice was cold when he spoke his next words.
"First of all, YOU are the scum here, not me. YOU kidnapped innocent children and YOU were going to give them to people who would have either killed them for their amusement or brainwashed them into mindless puppets or slaves. And you did it for what? So you could join some small-fry demon's army? Because they promised you your family back or revenge for them? Ignorant and pathetic. That's what you are. A mere pawn that the demons use to fulfill their needs and then discard when they're done. You mean nothing to them. You are a criminal in the eyes of the Empire. You are stuck in between a rock and a hard place, and yet you don't realise this, blindly thinking you'll get what you want. Why? Because they made a verbal promise? Did you sign an unbreakable magical contract with the demon? I highly doubt it. That shitty salesman of a demon would never sign any contract with a replaceable pawn like you. You're not worth his time and consideration past your meager use to him."
Garl stared at the man in disbelief and shock at the casual verbal admonishing of his actions. For a moment, he was made to think if there was any truth to his masked assailant's words. But he quickly discarded that idea. This man in front of him may have somehow figured out about his Patreon, but he didn't know anything about him. He didn't know his desperation, his suffering. Working for the demons was the only option he had left. The only way for him to exact his revenge. He knew his family can't be revived, even though 'they' had promised so as part of the deal. But he didn't care. He wanted revenge. He was out for blood.
Meanwhile, the masked man continued to spit words, for some reason derailing from his original point.
"You're a filthy piece of shit, you know that? You guys hurt an innocent little girl and beat her so bad she was on the verge of dying. And you threw her to a room, like some garbage. Did you not feel any sympathy for the girl? She's deeply traumatized from your downright evil actions. You ruined that girl's childhood. Weren't you a father to a daughter too? Did she not remind you of your dead daughter? Did you not feel a shred of mercy for the poor thing? She had already suffered so much and you… you pinned the nail in her coffin. What did she do to you anyway?"
"Shut the fuck up! She's not like my fucking daughter, you bastard. She's a nobody. I don't care if a demihuman girl from the slums dies. Don't compare her to my daught—Gaaahhh!"
He couldn't finish his sentence as he was once again punched. And this punch was different. It was the strongest and most vindictive punch yet. It held strength. It held wrath.
He felt his vision blur for a moment as he involuntarily spat.
"You know what, forget it. It was my fault for trying to act like a good guy, trying to teach the bad guy his folly and show him the right way. I don't know why the fuck I even tried that. Hell, I don't really give a fuck about you, your past, and even your future. You can go die for all I care.
But you did two things that have angered me very much. You hurt an innocent catgirl and you ruined my day out. For that, you deserve punishment. You need some healthy amount of beating."
The masked man delivered on his words and for the next dozen or so minutes, Garl was beaten like a punching bag.
Only his painful grunts and occasional cries along with the sound of him being punched and kicked resonated through the dungeon cell.
By the end of it, he was heavily bruised and bleeding from a few places, other than his already bleeding thighs, obviously. His head felt light as his vision had blurred a bit.
"S-Stop… I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to hurt that demi girl. I was pissed and she bit me when I tried to shut her up. I—aaaaargghhh!!!"
He couldn't even apologize for the second "accusation" as his pleading words turned into a painful cry as he felt another stab in his already bleeding thigh.
He screamed and groaned; cursed and struggled, but he couldn't do anything as the short sword in his thigh was twisted, making the pain spike and the fresh wound worsen.
He'd failed to realize that admitting that he'd harmed the girl had been a big mistake since from that moment, the masked man didn't speak another word and used anything and everything he could find to bring more pain to him.
He punched, kicked, and stabbed him again and again.
He suffered enough to make him feel his life was about to end from the pain and more importantly from the blood loss. But just when he thought he'd bled enough to pass out, the masked man shoved a healing potion down his throat, forcing him to gulp it and for his stab wounds to somewhat heal. Not fully, though.
"Answer my fucking questions and I'll stop. I don't have time to waste on scum like you."
In the end, he had no choice but to comply, after the process was repeated a few times. Even he wasn't ready to feel more pain. Death would have been better than feeling constant pain.
This day was deeply etched into his memory now. The unknown man, wearing a beast mask; his fiery golden eyes looking at him like he was trash. His young but cold voice and the harsh but proper words he spoke. He didn't know who this man was. But the masked man seemed to know a lot about him and even about 'them.' He knew about the demons and the one who had contacted Garl through one of his circle members and made a deal.
Garl seemed to feel a bit hopeless at that moment, realizing he was still too weak. Nothing much had changed. He was once again tied and beaten, and things were taken from him forcefully. The world had been always unfair to him. And it seemed to continue being so, even now.
He hated this world. He hated everyone. Everything. And above all, in this moment of suffering, he hated the masked man the most.
While he answered the strangely specific questions that the masked man asked, he swore…
'I will kill you! No matter what it takes.'
This masked man wasn't an ordinary guy, clearly. He must be someone important, someone knowledgeable. It would have been better if he didn't try to antagonize him. Since the masked man held no regard for his life. But Garl couldn't hold back his maddening rage bubbling inside.
'I WILL kill you…'
[End of Garl's POV]
***