“Ugh. Uhh….”
Lara forced her heavy eyelids open.
When her vision finally began to clear, an utterly unfamiliar scene came into view.
‘Where am I…?’
Lara tried to sit up.
But the chain fastened around her ankle immediately sent her falling back down.
The jolt snapped her fully awake, and she grasped the situation.
Right. She had inhaled the gas and collapsed along with the person she was supposed to protect.
They had been kidnapped.
Then this place was… their base?
Lara hurriedly looked around.
A dark interior.
Red luminescent stones sparsely placed throughout the room.
Butchered pigs and cattle hanging here and there.
A temperature low enough for her breath to turn white.
‘…A freezer?’
Once her eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness, Lara searched for the person she had been protecting.
True to the saying that it was darkest beneath the lamp, Lea was lying collapsed right beside her.
Lara checked whether Lea was breathing.
Fortunately, she was.
Judging by the fact that her clothes had not been disturbed either, it did not appear that anything terrible had been done to her yet.
Only then did Lara examine her own condition.
Her fingertips were cold.
The ankle wrapped in the chain even felt as though it had been burned.
The jacket she had been wearing was gone.
Her communicator had been in its inner pocket.
It seemed they had taken that along with it.
‘This is bad….’
There was no sign of anyone nearby.
The criminals appeared to be somewhere else.
The problem was that they had almost certainly discovered the communicator.
Could they have realized she belonged to the Special Unit and fled?
She could not rule out the possibility.
According to the Intelligence Division, there did not seem to be enough of them to even form a proper organization.
“Wake up. Hey.”
Lara quietly shook Lea.
Lea soon opened her eyes.
“Mm…. Yes? Ah… where…?”
“We’re inside a freezer. That taxi driver kidnapped us, and this seems to be their base.”
“Ah… I see. Kidnapped…… W-Wait, what?! Then we’re in—”
“—Shh.”
Lara covered Lea’s mouth.
“We still don’t have enough information. Until we know exactly what kind of situation we’re in, nothing good will come from letting them know we’re awake.”
“…Mmph.”
Lea unconsciously nodded.
Once she had calmed down a little, Lara removed her hand.
Unlike the frightened Lea, Lara was strangely composed.
Lea realized that this girl’s reaction was anything but ordinary.
“Um, what exactly do you…?”
“I’m Second Lieutenant Lara of the Special Unit’s Capital Second Headquarters. I know you’re frightened, but don’t worry. Reinforcements from our side will be here soon.”
In truth, Lara could not be certain reinforcements would actually come.
Still, she delivered the textbook line to calm Lea down.
It was meant to keep the person under her protection from panicking out of fear.
And there was a reason textbook lines like that existed.
“Haa…. Goodness. Thank goodness.”
The mention of the Special Unit finally allowed Lea to breathe a little easier.
Their safety had not been secured yet, but the fact that she was with a member of the Special Unit gave her something substantial to cling to.
Lara, on the other hand, was burning up inside.
‘My mana won’t move. That means the proportion of Magic-Suppressing Silver in these chains is high.’
‘These were made to restrain at least a Fourth-Tier Mage…. But if that’s the case, something doesn’t add up.’
Lara examined the chains while trying to move her mana.
‘I don’t know exactly how many of them there are, but I was told none of them were above Third Tier.’
‘Yet no matter how I look at these chains, they were made to neutralize someone stronger than that.’
‘Magic-Suppressing Silver isn’t easy to obtain either. Something meant to capture a Fourth-Tier Mage or higher would cost a fortune on the black market.’
‘A group of criminals that can barely even be called an organization spent that much money just to kidnap people…?’
‘It doesn’t add up.’
Lara scrutinized her surroundings once more.
Even this room alone was strange.
This was not some tiny freezer tucked beneath a commercial building.
Judging by its apparent size, it was roughly 660 square meters.
And there was no shortage of livestock stored inside either.
Then—
Just as Lara was trying to assess the situation and devise a way to escape.
“Aaaaaah!”
Lea screamed.
Terrified, she pointed toward one corner.
“O-Over there… over there…!”
“……!”
Where Lea was pointing—
Human corpses appeared to have been frozen there.
But they were in anything but a normal state.
Their eye sockets had been gouged empty, and it appeared all their internal organs had already been removed.
“Th-Those… those are human bodies, right? They are, aren’t they?!”
“…….”
“A-And there are… there are so many of them…! How… what do we do……?!”
Lea was completely terrified.
Just as she had said, the frozen corpses were stacked on top of one another, at least twenty bodies in all.
Lara immediately tried to cover Lea’s mouth, but she never got the chance.
“Guests. Sleep well?”
RATTLE—!
The door opened, and a man entered.
It was the bastard who had driven the taxi.
There was one difference from before, however.
Earlier, he had been alone.
Now, he had brought a considerable number of companions with him.
‘Twenty… no, twenty-five.’
Lara hid Lea behind her and faced the men.
She was small, but her eyes sharpened as she refused to let herself be overwhelmed by their presence.
The taxi driver found the sight ridiculous and snickered.
“What are you going to do? You can’t use magic, so are you going to start swinging your fists?”
“Don’t come any closer.”
“‘Don’t come any closer,’ my ass, you rude bitch. You should be bowing your head and thanking me for not touching you. I only left you alone because I’m the kind of guy who respects the chain of command.”
“What?”
“The seniors get first pick before the juniors do.”
The man lecherously looked Lara up and down.
He did not seem to care in the slightest that she was underage.
“You crazy sex-offender bastard.”
“Can’t argue with that. …Ah, more importantly. Are you with the Special Unit?”
“…….”
“Guess you really are. Wow, impressive. You don’t even look like an adult yet, and you’ve already got yourself a proper job. Your parents must’ve been very proud.”
For some reason, none of them became nervous at the mention of the Special Unit.
More than that, even after deducing who she was, they had not fled.
That definitely was not a normal reaction.
‘What is this? Do they have something they’re relying on?’
Lara’s body grew even more tense.
She could not examine them properly, but all of them appeared to have rat tattoos.
In other words, all twenty-five criminals in this room were Heretical Mages.
‘The intel was wrong. Their numbers, the scale of this place—everything.’
‘They said these people couldn’t even form an organization, but that’s not true.’
‘This is actually a fairly sizable organization…. And if that’s the case, then the boss leading them must be no ordinary…….’
The instant Lara’s thoughts reached that point—
“Move.”
A deep, heavy voice rang out.
The group of criminals immediately split apart to either side.
Like the parting of the sea before Moses, they bowed their heads in perfect unison.
A huge man walked through the opening between them.
Then the fake taxi driver shouted,
“You’re here, Boss!”
““You’re here, Boss!””
The man responded halfheartedly, as though he found them annoying.
Lara knew the enormous man who looked more than twice her size.
‘Fifth-Tier Heretical Mage. William Bonin…!’
A criminal who had been imprisoned until the Alkant Tragedy occurred.
Lara did not know the personal information of every officially identified criminal the way Han did.
But she had at least memorized everyone who was Fifth Tier or higher.
And there was no way she would not know William Bonin.
He had deep ties to Ivan Keller, the boss of the organization Han’s team had recently been searching for.
‘No wonder I couldn’t move my mana at all…. These chains were used to restrain William Bonin when he was imprisoned!’
When she had been in the back seat of the taxi, moving mana had not been completely impossible.
The taxi had only been lined with low-purity Magic-Suppressing Silver.
If Lara had been given just a little more time, she would have been able to counterattack instead.
But the chains now clamped tightly around her ankle had been made from the beginning to restrain a Fifth-Tier Mage.
Of course Lara could not move a muscle.
“You’re pretty.”
William Bonin strode forward and stopped directly in front of Lara.
The difference in their height was so extreme that his shadow fell over her.
“Clean skin too. Your hair looks nice. Your body… I guess you’re still growing.”
“…….”
“I like you. Except for one thing.”
SLAP—!
The blow came without warning.
Lara’s head snapped to the side after being struck by a hand larger than her face.
Considering the difference in their physiques, it was remarkable that she had managed to stay on her feet.
“I don’t like your eyes. That fierce look isn’t my type.”
“You bastard…!”
SLAP—!
This time, Lara’s head whipped in the opposite direction.
At the same moment, a shrill ringing filled her ears.
She nearly lost her balance.
Looking down at Lara as she barely managed to remain standing, Bonin spoke.
“One more thing. I like women who speak nicely. Fix that.”
“…Psycho bastard.”
SLAP—!
The third strike rang out especially hard.
Lara’s thin legs could no longer withstand the impact, and she collapsed.
Lea, who had been trembling in fear, flinched and hurried over to Lara.
Bonin indifferently repeated himself.
“Fix it. Right now. You can do that, can’t you?”
Only three blows had left both of Lara’s cheeks bright red.
Her breathing had grown ragged.
Her face burned with pain.
It was merciless violence without even the slightest restraint.
No matter how hard she tried not to show it, Lara’s body began trembling slightly.
The information about William Bonin carved into her memory flashed through her mind like scenes in a revolving lantern.
It was well known that William Bonin had been with Ivan Keller when Keller annihilated an entire Special Unit team in the past.
The two of them had killed every Special Unit member by cutting them to pieces.
The only mage on the team had been a woman.
She had been sexually assaulted until shortly before her death, and everything she had achieved in magic had been taken from her.
As a woman, as a mage, and as a member of the Special Unit, it had been an unimaginably tragic death.
Their lack of fear toward the name of the Special Unit was probably rooted in William Bonin’s past.
‘Calm down…. Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared……!’
As fear threatened to consume her body, Lara forcibly sharpened her consciousness and tried to stop herself from trembling.
‘Don’t freeze up like an idiot. Think.’
‘Think of a way out of this…!’
Lara tried to force herself back to her feet.
When her spirit showed no sign of breaking, Bonin prepared to strike her again.
“Stop—!!”
Lea rushed forward and shielded Lara.
She spread both arms wide in front of her, though her entire body was visibly trembling.
Tears streamed down Lea’s face as she shouted,
“Why are you doing this?! What did we ever do to you?! She’s still just a young girl! Don’t any of you feel even the slightest bit of guilt?!”
Her voice rang throughout the freezer.
The criminals who had witnessed Lea’s courage fell silent for a moment.
Then—
““Bwahahahahaha!””
They burst into laughter.
“What the hell is that ugly bitch babbling about? Guilt? Kekekeke.”
“Fuck, I haven’t heard bullshit that funny in ages. My sides are going to split.”
“Kuhuh. Boss Bonin, we were going to skip using that bitch and just process her anyway. Why don’t you do it now? She’s practically begging you to kill her.”
“…….”
Lea froze at their utterly bizarre reaction.
Only then did she realize.
Concepts like common sense and morality did not exist for these people.
And in the next moment, the huge man’s magic—
“Ugly bitch.”
—was going to pass straight through her neck.
SQUELCH—!
An iron spike created from magic shot toward Lea like an arrow, its tip radiating searing heat.
Lea squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her teeth.
But—
“Ah, shit. This is embarrassing. I’m making the Special Unit look pathetic.”
Lara quickly shoved Lea aside.
The iron spike punched a hole through Lara’s wrist.
But the wound immediately froze over, stopping the bleeding.
There was no mistaking it.
That was Lara’s magic.
Weak though it was, Lara’s mana was moving.
“If this is all you’ve got, then I’m a real idiot for being even a little scared.”
The corner of Lara’s mouth lifted slightly.
Until moments ago, she had been fighting against her fear.
Now she had regained her pace.
William Bonin, on the other hand, could not understand what was happening.
Lara’s ankle was still chained.
“How?”
“What do you care, you pig bastard?”
“…….”
The criminals began moving their mana and shifted into attack stances.
Bonin also unfolded a formula as he analyzed Lara’s condition.
“…Ah, I see. You’re forcing every last drop out of your mana circuits.”
Bonin sensed the instability of the mana surrounding Lara.
The Magic-Suppressing Silver was unquestionably working.
Lara was simply overexerting herself to momentarily produce magical power beyond Fifth Tier.
Enough that the chains could not completely suppress it.
“Impressive. Even if it’s only for an instant, you’re surpassing your original tier. …But your mana circuits will be ruined if you keep that up.”
“Shut up and worry about your own head ending up on an ancestral rites table.”
Lara formed the sign for mountain with her hands.
Bonin’s eyebrow twitched.
“Looks like you have no intention of fixing that attitude. Then there’s no helping it. I’ll just have to process you right away too.”
SHING, SHING, SHING—!
Iron spikes erupted all around Bonin.
Their crimson tips looked hot enough to melt skin the instant they touched it.
Lara had overcome much of her fear, but the situation was still overwhelmingly against her.
Then—
As though someone had been waiting for precisely the right moment—
CRASH—!
The freezer’s thick front door exploded inward with a deafening roar.
HISSSSS—!
Steam poured out at the same time.
The person making the grand entrance was a young Easterner man.
“Putting a pig’s head on an ancestral rites table is an Easterner custom, not a Westerner one.”
The Easterner man made the completely irrelevant remark.
The instant Lara saw him, she knew she was saved.
A faintly trembling voice escaped her lips.
“You almost came too late, Team Leader….”