The girl opened her eyes.
The cold, dull sunlight shone into the cold room, and the unpleasant stench slowly drifted like a giant poison, and the scent of blood and decay was everywhere. Moldy straw mixed with rats that were almost impossible to see rolled around in the mud, and faint moans could be heard in the ears, ten of the fifteen people who had been sent here with them had died, only three had been sent to the stake, and the rest had died before that because they could not stand the unjustified beatings and questioning.
There was a rattling of chains, and the girl looked up and watched the filthy jailer dragging them back to his cell.
"Hey, how was your day?"
"That monster is hot enough, until the fire has been half of her body burnt still screaming there, sounds scary enough, hey! Monsters are monsters, you see so burn they do not die, I really want to suggest that the boss to change the method, or always go on like this, in case and the last time like to meet a not afraid of the fire, that is not a laughing stock?"
"I heard that there is something in the King's City, but can use steel spikes in the body of these assholes open so many holes, and then the blood flow, flow, flow, flow, flow, I went to see it once, it was really enjoyable! These monsters are so disgusting, and they all look just like my family, one nose and two ears, what kind of human statue are they? Why can't we kill them all? They're like rats in the gutter, and they're getting more and more numerous!"
"What's this, you don't know, that San Marino empire in the south, there are so many monsters there that I heard they can be piled up into mountains. I'm wondering, why don't the tops level that shitty country? A country ruled by demons and monsters sounds horrible. I hear the civilians there are worse than our pigs. Well, look at this world!"
Here, one of them noticed the young girl's eyes, and with an angry shout, he casually smashed the broken tin can on the table over to the young girl, hitting her hard on the shoulder.
"What are you looking at! It's your turn tomorrow!"
The girl trembled a little, but then the whole body came from a huge pain like a wave of anger washed over her body and mind, the original slender white finger tips blood and flesh, ten black thick iron nails deeply embedded in them, and even let the girl as the function of the finger has been completely necrotic. The black flesh had begun to ulcerate, flowing as if the blood did not belong to human beings.
The jailer came over and looked the young girl's body up and down with a mocking expression.
"Don't you think this thing is pretty good looking? Want to take her and let you two have some fun?"
"Forget it!"
The other one winced.
"That's a monster, why are you still interested? If you get infected with some horrible disease ... don't forget that new idiot who's still hanging out there feeding crows! What, you've lived too long and want to volunteer to be fresh food? Come on, man, let's go to Carina's Tavern and have a drink together, we'll have fun tomorrow! This thing is half dead, let's hope it lasts till morning, otherwise it's no fun to burn a dead body."
The jailer froze for a moment, then shook his head with a bitter smile.
"Forget it, I still have to go home and take care of those poor children, these goddamned monsters made them homeless, hey ..."
"You're really ... too."
Another man came up to him sympathetically and patted him on the shoulder.
"I've told you not to be an abusive person, now it's good, you only earn so much money every month, and all of it goes to feed those little kids ... you have not thought about, if any of them are monsters what to do?"
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're thinking too much. ..."
The two men joked with each other and left, and with the candles on the table extinguished once again, darkness and cold once again ruled the space.
The girl closed her eyes and fell into a not-too-long sleep.
Jared stopped dead in his tracks and looked back with some surprise.
（Jared? What's going on?)
Caroline asked curiously, whilst turning slightly to the side so that a ruffian and thief trying to take advantage of her would pounce.
"No ... nothing, just some strange feelings ..."
Jared scratched his head, shrugged his shoulders, and then looked up at the inn in front of him. Luxurious and beautifully decorated inn and other places do not look different, it seems and his impression of some does not match, a view of killing as a pleasure city, even if the decor should be with this bloody and evil style is right - now it seems that this is simply preconceived notions, bright green leafy plants and peaceful atmosphere and smiling hostesses seem so normal, normal and even a little abnormal. The green foliage and the serene atmosphere and the smiling waitresses seemed so normal, so normal that it was almost perverse.
"Ah, honored wizard-sama, are these lords your friends?"
A bartender stepped out to greet the crowd warmly, and froze slightly at the sight of Jared and Caroline.
"These two are ... Please wait."
With that, he hastily pulled a strange prop out of his pocket and held it up to Jared and Caroline, then Kula and Kelly, and finally Wendy.
Jared's fingers twitched slightly, but no one noticed.
"Ah ... welcome everyone, honorable young master and young lady, please follow me."
Seemingly did not find anything wrong, the bartender attentively entertained Jared and Caroline, as well as Kula and others into the inn, for the Yuri and others responsible for carrying the gifts behind them, it is clear that the orcs have no status to speak of the race does not even let the human worthy of caring about the value of it. According to the bartender, they don't even have the right to sleep in the guest room, they can only sleep in the stables.
"Honorable guest, please don't embarrass me."
Although he had received a few gold coins as a tip, the bartender still wore a bitter look on his face.
"This store can't let a bunch of orcs stay, it will tarnish the store's reputation, and if other customers see it ... things will be very troublesome at that time."
"Well, at least leave her behind."
Jared pointed to the cat-eared girl who was already upset about having to sleep in the stables, but who hadn't acted on her impulse simply because Yuri had pulled her along.
"My fiancée needs to be served, and I'm not going to let you guys at the store take care of that?"
"This ..."
The bartender hesitated, an orc girl wasn't much of a problem by all accounts, and these guys were generous, so losing a potential customer over a boring rule wasn't exactly a smart move. What's more, there are better hotels in the city than this one. ...
"No problem."
Eventually, he nodded his head in agreement with Jared's request.
Entering the lavishly decorated room, Jared's face still didn't look any better, Caroline seemed to be in low spirits from the exhaustion of the trip, and Kylie sat beside her in silence, flipping through her spell book. Kura was already lying on the soft bed in her sleep, and Wendy had gone back to her room, which, admittedly, wasn't a very good place to start.
"I thought hotels in this city stripped off dead faces for decoration."
Jared said with cold sarcasm, while pouring himself a glass of juice.
"What do we do now?"
Kelly looked up, her voice still dark and low, but filled with an unspeakable intensity.
"How are we going to find out ..."
"The Lord of Cthulhu has given us a list ."
Jared waved a blank sheet of paper with what appeared to be a few names written on it.
"We just have to go and find these people, then the rest will be easier."
Kylie didn't say anything, and lowered her head again, continuing to study her magic. Jared and Caroline looked at each other and smiled bitterly, it was obvious that it would take a long time for Kylie to come out of the shadows, or at least it wasn't going to happen right now.
"We'll rest here for the night and leave in the morning."
When no one said anything, Jared had to give the order himself, and the truth was that even he was a little disinterested.
The moon rises in the sky.
Silence and serenity descended in place of the clamor of the day, and enveloped the whole dark and boundless world.
Jared leaned against the wall, staring coldly at the dark iron pillar far in front of him. In the moonlight, it stood out like a death cross, and it was disgusting.
(... I hate that ...)
Caroline turned away, unwilling to look away.
"Me too."
Jared shook his head.
"This stuff is completely out of line with my values, even in this country."
（We're gonna make it, right?)
"We must succeed ..."
Jared's eyes narrowed and he frowned.
"Otherwise I will never be at peace."
His voice was filled with indifference, anger, and unquenchable hatred.
Even though the charred body wasn't directly connected to Jared and the others, they didn't even know who it was.
But instinctively, they knew immediately that it was one of their own kind.
It's something that goes beyond blood, emotional ties.
Suddenly, Caroline stood up straight, looked toward the other window in surprise, and then quickly withdrew her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
Jared asked suspiciously .
(Miss Wendy ... is crying.)
Obviously, no one's first impression of this country is favorable.
So when Jared asked to leave immediately the next day, no one objected. Even Kula, who was usually confused, made her opinion clear this time.
"If we stay any longer, Kula will be very, very angry!!!"
With a vehemence seldom seen in her,she expounded her inexplicable reasoning.
So Jared ordered Yuri and the others to go ahead and pack the wagons and such necessary tools, while they gazed curiously at the throngs of people moving about in front of them.
(What are these people going to do?)
Not only commoners, but even dignitaries, flocked to the plaza in the center of the city, as if they were about to watch something. And when Jared asked the bartender about it, he seemed to have seen it coming.
"Ah, they're going to see the monster execution. Guests, if you're interested, you can go and watch."
"Monster ... execution?"
"Yes, those monsters in human skin will be burned to death in public so that our country will become more peaceful and prosperous ... This is a great event!"
"..."
Jared, his anger strongly suppressed, returns to tell the crowd what he's heard, Caroline is clearly disgusted, Kelly remains silent, and Kula, uncharacteristically, makes a surprising request.
"Kula wants to check it out!"
"Going?"
Jared asked back, a little surprised; while it was good that Kura wasn't sleeping in a daze right now, it was a little difficult to make strange demands like this.
"Way to go!"
Since Kura insisted on her request, they had no choice but to accompany her. After all, she's an aria, so it would be bad if something happened to her.
Muddling through the crowd, he looked at the thick iron pillar in front of him. Jared's face was cold as ice, and he wasn't about to watch, especially not when this crowd was playing a game with a man's life and death.
Two masked men, carrying a chained and bound maiden, came out, and their appearance caused an immediate cheer from the crowd.
"Monster! Die!!!"
"Monsters like you! Only death can erase your sins!"
A flood of debris, accompanied by curses, poured down on the young girl, who was so tortured that she apparently did not have the strength to resist, and was able to let the filth splash on her face and naked body.
"Huh?"
Just then, Jared suddenly realized something was wrong, he gazed intently at the young girl, and then, startled, stepped back and clutched Caroline's hand.
"Caroline! Look!!!"
(I don't want to ...)
"Look!!!"
Perhaps it was because Jared's usually calm voice had turned so agitated that it was puzzling, Caroline, who had been gazing at the ground with her head down, raised her head, and was equally startled when she saw clearly the young girl in front of her.
(How did ...!!!)
"Jared? Ms. Caroline? What happened to you guys?"
Perhaps the behavior of the two was too unusual, even Kelly temporarily put aside her hesitation and inquired somewhat uneasily .
"..."
Jared was silent for a moment, then reached out and pulled out a blank sheet of paper, a list of names.
"Wendy, are you there?"
"I'm here."
Wendy, who had been standing in the background, spoke up in response .
"Tell the Lord of Cthulhu for me ..."
Jared slowly tore through the list, then reduced it to pieces.
"The plan was canceled."
He stared at the crowd in front of him, his eyes red, while Caroline had taken out her thin sword at some point, and it gradually began to flash with a thunderous light.
"I want this group of people, and this country, completely off the map ... It's as simple as that."
A black whirlwind roared by.
Accompanied by blood and flesh, screams and cries of frenzy, Caroline in the hands of the rune fine sword has turned into a thunderous silver snake, mercilessly tearing the surrounding crowd, those who did not react to the people torn, burned, cleared a large area of open space. The black scythe in Jared's hand is like the wrath of the god of death like crazy harvesting life, hard from the original crowded crowd to kill a bloody road, when he stepped on those who do not know who the owner of the flesh and blood walked to the front of the girl, both sides of the masked executioner did not even have time to react, their bodies have been tilted in the moment of spraying blood into four neatly chopped pieces of the corpse.
The young girl raised her head slightly in confusion, and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Jared in front of her.
But Jared only smiled gently and placed his hand on top of the young girl's head, stroking it gently. In a tone of great tenderness and sorrow, he spoke slowly.
"We're coming for you, Gina."