“Aaaaargh—!”
The torture chamber had a thick steel door, but even that could not stop the screams from leaking out.
The hideout's members all held their breath at the chilling screams.
'Ugh… I can't watch.'
Thank goodness. Hess had not personally performed the torture in the novel, either.
“Shall I continue?”
Holding metal implements dripping with blood, Saya asked Hess.
“Continue.”
Saya really had nerves of steel.
Even in the novel, Hess had only chosen the torture menu; it had been Saya's job to perform the torture herself.
In the first place, taking on such dirty work was Saya's role.
And considering Saya's past, it was almost natural that she did not bat an eye at work like this.
At any rate, Hess enjoyed punishing half-witted bastards like these, but that was the Hess of the original story.
'…I really can't watch. I can't stand horrible things.'
Everyone in the torture chamber thought Hess was enjoying the situation.
But while pretending to keep his eyes on the torture, Hess was looking elsewhere.
When a hand was being seared, he looked at the feet. When a leg was being seared, he looked at the shoulders.
“Truly delightful. Saya, is it not?”
“It is.”
Seeing the cruel Hess use the torture chamber on the very first day he came to the hideout, Saya felt relieved.
'The things from earlier must have been because Lord Hess was a little stressed. As expected, Lord Hess is Lord Hess.'
Only four men remained, waiting their turn.
Looking down at one trembling bastard, Hess asked Saya,
“What kind of stupid shit did this bastard pull?”
“He took some of the goods from a job we were hired for, for himself.”
“Tell me in detail.”
“The job was to steal everything that was in the safe. This man skimmed off ten gold coins from among them.”
The Dark Order had been able to become the greatest in the underworld by handling its commissioned jobs cleanly.
Assault, murder, theft, arson—the Dark Order handled every job that came in.
Some of the money it earned that way was used to shut the nobles' mouths, and as a result, the Dark Order had become an organization that no one dared uproot.
“Answer me. Why did you take them?”
“…Th-the medicine costs for my mother….”
“Saya, what do you think?”
Saya took out a small notebook and checked what she had written in it. Then she gave a slight nod and spoke.
“This man had gambling debts.”
“His offenses are stealing from the organization and lying in the torture chamber. Saya, carry out the punishment.”
“I will carry it out.”
“Aaaaargh—!”
Hess watched the man being worked over for a moment. Feeling Hess's gaze, Saya was happy.
'Ah… Lord Hess, you are cruel after all. It is blissful….'
Struggling to suppress the goosebumps spreading over her body, Saya continued her work.
While the man was being roasted, Hess issued another order.
“Return the entire commission fee to the client along with ten gold coins.”
“Understood.”
Leaving Saya behind as she answered crisply and continued her work, Hess stood before the remaining three men.
The three were tied together with a single rope.
“What are these bastards, the Three Idiots?”
“They also took some of the goods from a job we were hired for.”
“All three of them together? Did they plan it beforehand?”
“That does not seem to be the case. They were assigned from different hideouts, but it seems their intentions happened to align.”
What ridiculous bastards.
“You three answer, too. Why did you do it?”
“…I truly needed the money for my mother's medicine….”
“My father is unwell….”
“My little sister….”
Hess shook his head and let out a sigh.
“Saya.”
Saya began examining the notebook. Yet she did not readily speak.
She kept reading the same page over and over, then finally nodded as though she understood.
“Surprisingly, these men seem to be telling the truth. They all have family members who are dying.”
“…That is truly astonishing. How much did they take?”
“A great deal. In gold coins, it is worth more than sixty.”
At this amount, the highest punishment—execution—was unavoidable.
Hess took Saya's notebook and read what it said.
It contained the results of an investigation into the three men's backgrounds.
'Sniff… What is this? Why is it so sad?'
Their deeply moving stories drew him in too much.
What wiped away the tears gathering in Hess's eyes was the three men's next actions.
“Why did you call for backup there in the first place?”
“Hmph! If you'd done it properly, would we have needed backup?”
“You two are just the same. Who are you to blame anyone? I should've just done it alone. You damned bastards.”
“What bullshit. You were the most useless bastard.”
“What did you call me, you bastard?”
“Bastard? Bastaaard~?”
Tied together in a little clump, the three began shoving each other's shoulders and snarling at one another.
'…Their stories are sad, but they are certainly useless bastards.'
“Lord Hess, the punishment.”
Saya spoke while wiping the blood from each of the torture implements and polishing them again.
'They must be punished. But their circumstances are definitely tearjerking. Even if it were me….'
After pondering for a moment, Hess returned to his room and brought back something. It was the map he had found while sorting through the boxes.
“Saya, bring me a new map of the area near the hideout.”
Hess made the same marking on the new map Saya brought, copying one of the markings from the map he already had.
“Untie these idiots.”
“Pardon?”
“I have a good idea.”
Saya flinched for a moment, then saw Hess's impassive expression, nodded, and untied the rope.
“Take this map and go where it is marked. If you find a useful treasure there, I will pardon your crimes.”
“…Is that truly so?”
“Are you giving us a chance!?”
“Yes, so make good use of it.”
The three bowed their heads and immediately left the hideout.
“…Lord Hess?”
“Stupid bastards. That place is crawling with monsters. They will feel desperate terror, then be torn to shreds and die.”
Looking at Hess's vicious smile, Saya felt at peace.
'As expected, Lord Hess… He intends to make them die as painfully as possible.'
With a satisfied smile, Saya drew in a deep breath.
She spread both arms wide, savoring the blood stench of the torture chamber as it rushed into her nostrils.
'I am happy… Lord Hess's bloody justice fills the entire world.'
Hess was just as satisfied.
'Whew… I can't watch people with stories like that die before my eyes. Go die far away, out of my sight.'
As Hess was about to leave the torture chamber, Saya made her final report for the day.
“Lord Hess, Lucifer's Egg you mentioned earlier will arrive soon. It seems you will be able to see it at the hideout tomorrow night.”
It was finally coming.
“Good. Have every kind of fruit it can eat prepared.”
“All of them…?”
“Yes. Do not leave out a single one.”
As he worked so hard to establish discipline, daybreak came. One by one, the organization's members went to bed.
But Hess did not return to his room. Of course, there was nothing he had to do.
It was Henrik's turn now.
***
'Somehow, I've been doing one thing after another without a moment's rest. I'm busier than I was in real life, aren't I?'
He was literally working without sleep. This was all because of that bastard Lloyd.
For someone who's supposed to be the protagonist, he couldn't do a single thing on his own without someone else's help.
Henrik chewed over all manner of complaints in his mind the entire way to the inn, just like an office worker commuting to work.
'Anyway, I need to put Lloyd through his paces starting today. Before he learns swordsmanship, let's build his basic stamina. He had better keep up.'
The innkeeper was not at the counter. Instead, there was some middle-aged man.
“Welcome! Please tell me anything you need!”
Unlike the innkeeper, was he a person who knew manners? If so, it was time for the usual courteous Henrik.
“I came to find a companion staying here. He is a rather thin young man in his late teens who has been on a long-term stay since yesterday.”
“Ah… He looked a lot thinner than just a little thin, though. He should be upstairs. Um, but….”
“Is there a problem?”
“Well… I will go upstairs first.”
With an uncomfortable expression, the man went upstairs.
'I've got a bad feeling. Let's follow him.'
Henrik quietly tailed him, hid around the corner of the second-floor stairs, and peeked into the corridor.
Lloyd was sitting at a table at the end of the corridor, and the innkeeper was standing beside him and saying something.
“So you are saying you cannot eat it?”
“Of course I can't. Do you think this makes sense?”
Lloyd pointed at the food on the table.
“I clearly saw you receive more than ten gold coins yesterday, and you are only serving me a meal like this?”
At first, Henrik wondered why that bastard Lloyd was making such a fuss, but when he saw the state of the food, he could not help getting angry as well.
A bowl of watery soup without a single solid in it.
'…What is that? They actually prepared something so scant?'
But the innkeeper was the one acting indignant.
“Good grief! Those gold coins included the long-term lodging fee, did they not? How am I supposed to know how long you will stay here? If you stay for a whole year, the money you gave is not even that much, young man. Is that not right? Am I wrong? If I am wrong, then go ahead and tell me.”
The more the innkeeper spoke, the faster her words became. Had she lived in the real world, she would have become a rapper.
“And I gave you these clothes, and you remember I gave you a full bathing service, right? I prepared everything to match the price, with you in mind! Do you understand? Where else treats you this well? You know our inn is the best in this area, right? Do you know or not?”
As the innkeeper said, Lloyd had taken off the clothes that had made him look like a beggar and was wearing other clothes.
They were clothes far too large for his gaunt body.
Even giving her every benefit of the doubt, they looked less like new clothes than clothes that had been washed only after they were about to be thrown away.
They looked bad enough that Henrik would have believed she had simply washed Lloyd's original beggar clothes and made him wear them again.
The man beside her anxiously and timidly tried to stop the innkeeper, but it was no use. It seemed the two were husband and wife.
“Who are you trying to fleece? Do you seriously think any of this makes sense after taking that much money?”
“No, but he keeps speaking informally, so rudely….”
“Then stop giving me a reason to speak informally.”
Some stranger had suddenly appeared, given a huge sum of money, and left. The innkeeper must have thought Henrik was not a local but merely a passing noble.
She must have thought a wealthy man had sponsored a beggar and left, never to return.
'She at least had enough of a last shred of conscience not to kick Lloyd out.'
She had planned to keep him around as an unwanted burden. After all, she must have thought Lloyd, being weak, would not be able to utter a peep.
'Lloyd, that bastard, is always a lot of work. Still, it is good to see that he does not give an inch.'
In truth, Lloyd was not someone anyone could look down on. Even now, neither his personality nor the way he spoke was anything to take lightly.
It was only that he looked so miserable on the outside that he seemed weak.
'Once Lloyd regains his true appearance, an innkeeper like that will not even dare make eye contact with him.'
Henrik deliberately made loud footsteps as he entered the second-floor corridor.
At the sound, the innkeeper immediately spotted Henrik. The color soon drained from her face.
Henrik gazed intently at the three people at the opposite end of the corridor.
“Ah… Ah! I was wondering who you were! Welcome! I did not even ask your honored name yesterday! Haha!”
From her voice to her expression, she was unmistakably ingratiating.
“You came back so quickly! Haha….”
But as though he could not hear the innkeeper's words, Henrik did not even grant her a glance and immediately looked at the man.
“You there, sir.”
“Y-Yes, yes!”
“Sir, wait outside.”
“Yes! Thank you!”
The innkeeper tried to casually take the man's hand, but he leaped away as though she were something forbidden to touch and swiftly pulled his hand back.
Then he disappeared down the stairs like lightning.
“You are good at rapping, ma'am.”
“Rapping… What is that?”
“Come here. I want to talk to you.”
The innkeeper went rigid. The only thing moving was her trembling pupils.
“Are you going to stay there? Then I'll come to you.”
Henrik took one step forward and bent his knees slightly at the same time.
“I'll get to you as quickly as possible.”
When he stretched out his bent knees,
CRASH—!
Every window in the corridor shattered.