'It seems that there are people so disconnected from nature that they can't even conceive the idea of losing their lives...', Kara thought to herself, the confidence in the duke's son's eyes as he tried to convince her to spare his life making her believe that the duke's son couldn't imagine that someone in his position, with so much money and so many connections, could ever find themselves in a situation they couldn't escape from.
Fortunately (for Kara, not for the duke's son), she knew a remedy that could sharpen the rusted instincts of the duke's son, and that was extreme pain. She was certain that after she broke some of his bones, he would realize that she had no intention of reaching an agreement with him and was, in fact, planning to kill him.
However, administering such a remedy came with some challenges. One of them was that if she used her own hands to break the duke's son's bones, he would most likely lose his life in less than a minute, as his body seemed very fragile. Another issue was that it wasn't the right time for something like that, considering she was on a date with Ophelia. If she quickly eliminated the six as she had originally planned, it wouldn't be an event that would be hard to ignore when recalling their first date; it could be compared to swatting a fly that was buzzing around. But if she went ahead and started breaking the bones of all six one by one, intending to give the same treatment not just to the duke's son but to the other five as well, so none would feel discriminated against, that would make their first date remembered as an event full of violence. Moreover, Ophelia might think that revenge is more important to her than accompanying her.
'I think if I focus a bit, I could use the Advanced Telekinesis skill to break their arms and legs, but since I'm not yet fully accustomed to this skill, I'd have to take each limb one by one, so it would still take some time...', Kara continued to contemplate a way to deal with the six men in a manner that would cause them the most agonizing death, but without requiring too much involvement on her part. Since she specialized in killing as quickly as possible, she didn't have much inspiration when it came to doing the opposite.
But as is often the case with inspiration, it comes from things that people often overlook. That's exactly what happened to Kara, who, upon noticing some piles of clothes crammed into the shelves behind the six men, had the thought that they wouldn't feel very comfortable if they were alive.
'...And even less so if people were in their place, as they aren't made of such flexible materials...', Kara said to herself, after turning her gaze back to the six she had immobilized, imagining how they would look if they were squeezed together into a volume of approximately one cubic meter.
Seeing Kara begin to look at them like a cat eyeing some baby mice, the six men had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.
"Well, I think I've decided how to proceed. You were saying that two women shouldn't be together, right? Let me show you now that even men can be much closer than you ever imagined...", Kara gave the six men a hint of what awaited them, and then began using the Advanced Telekinesis skill to strip each of them of their valuables, as she didn't want to risk damaging them while crushing the men against one another.
The atmosphere around the six men became tense and awkward. Misunderstanding Kara's wordplay, assuming she had used "closer" in the sense of "intimate," and watching her remove items from them as if she were preparing to undress them, they suspected that Kara was planning to force them into sexual acts with one another.
Though they would never admit it publicly, if given the choice between making love to a man or being tortured, all six would likely have chosen the former. So, instead of protesting, they began sizing each other up, trying to figure out who would be the most acceptable partner. Naturally, the two noble sons, younger and more delicate, were the most sought after.
"Kara, wouldn't you be punishing yourself if you had to supervise them while, um, you know...?", Ophelia asked. She, perhaps influenced by the way the six men had started to look at each other, also began to believe that Kara really wanted to make them engage in indecent acts with one another.
Since she was certain that Kara was only attracted to women, Ophelia suspected that Kara would find such scenes repulsive. At least she, whom Kara had helped realize she preferred women, would have found them repulsive at that moment.
Kara was amused by Ophelia's question. Although her wording had indeed been vague, she didn't expect Ophelia to fall into the same trap as the six men. She thought she hadn't done anything to make her suspect she had such strange hobbies.
"Don't pay attention to them, Ophelia. Their minds probably can't grasp the idea that they're about to lose their lives, so they cling to any hope of staying alive...", Kara reassured her, though she didn't bother explaining what she actually intended to do since she was about to put her plan into action. All that remained was to take the storage ring and the high-quality sword from one of the guards.
Once everything of value the six men possessed was piled before her, Kara stored it all, including the device that nullified a mentalist's skills, into her own storage space. She was now likely a hundred times richer than when she had first entered the shop.
Kara didn't give the six men a chance to regret the loss of their possessions, as she made them all float into the air in the next second. Then she began pushing them against each other in mid-air, trying to shape them into something resembling a sphere.
"Ugh, I've never had the patience for solving puzzles...", Kara said, displeased that no matter how she tried to arrange the six men, they didn't seem to form a whole, always leaving too much space between them and with limbs sticking out awkwardly.
"It seems I have no choice. I'll have to use force from the start...", Kara added after a while, and in the next moment, the six began to be squeezed tightly from all sides, as if they were trapped in a giant hand. This forced them into very unnatural positions to fill the gaps between them, and their limbs, which refused to align properly, began to crack. As expected, this caused the six to scream much louder than they had been screaming before.
"Ahhh!! Please, ...I have a one-year-old son at home... uhhh... I was just following my employer's orders...", one of the four guards started to shout, realizing there was no point in staying loyal to the duke's son, who couldn't even save himself at that moment.
The concern in the guard's eyes when he mentioned his son reminded Kara a little of the look in her father's eyes whenever she had an accident, so she didn't believe he was lying. But that wasn't enough to make her view him in a better light.
"Hmm, it's true that the coming years will be hard for him, but I think he'll grow into a more dependable young man this way than if he were raised by a father involved in kidnapping girls. As for the fact that you were just following orders from your boss, well, you didn't seem too reluctant to follow them when you were asking the duke's son and the bastard of the High Priest to let you spend a few hours with us in the future after they got bored...", Kara dismantled all the guard's excuses. Besides, for her, it didn't matter whether someone attacked her of their own volition or followed someone else's orders; she wouldn't spare them in any case. With the belief that there's no difference between the bite of a bear that intends to feed itself and the bite of a bear that intends to feed its cubs, Kara didn't care about the motives of those who wished her harm, only about what they intended to do to her.
But aside from the fact that Kara wasn't moved by any sob story, the six men realized something else from her words: she had long been aware that they were after her and had been watching them the entire time. After all, how else could she know what the guard, who had just begged her for mercy, had said half an hour ago? But didn't this mean they were the hunted from the start? Thinking about this, the six felt even more helpless and found it harder and harder to cling to any hope of escaping alive.
Unfortunately, they could no longer express their suspicions or fears, as Kara took away the ability to speak from all six men, believing she had wasted enough time on them. Wouldn't it be better to hear only Ophelia's sweet voice? With this thought in mind, Kara planned to suggest to Ophelia that they quietly continue their shopping together, intending to pay attention to the six men only every five minutes, at which point she would increase the pressure exerted on them to bring them even closer together.
***Author's Thoughts:
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