Chapter 26: CH 26

“You’re not going to eat?”

“Huh?”

“I heard that His Lordship is providing free meals. You’re not going for some?”

A pretty girl. She looked older than Tom though. Averting his eyes, he looked at the ground. Was she someone who came to watch the trial? Since she didn’t know his face, then she’s probably a merchant who had traveled from afar.

“If I go, it’ll get weird.”

“Because your dad’s a murderer?”

“My dad is not a murderer!”

He shouted. However, let alone getting startled, the girl continued smiling.

“Yeah. Not a murderer, but a rapist, right? No, I guess an attempted sexual offender.”

“…That woman didn’t die.”

He looked like he was about to cry. Tom widened his eyes just so the tears wouldn’t fall.

“S-She didn’t die. A-And in the end, she wasn’t raped.”

“Is that really how you feel, or are you making a remonstrance for your father?”

“R-Rem…?”

Hearing a word he didn’t know from the girl, Tom made an idiotic sound. At this, the girl frowned.

“Rather, give me a new, fresh answer.”

“Huh?”

“If I like your answer, I’ll give you five gold coins.”

Five gold coins. For an answer squeezed out from Tom’s head. What did she mean five gold coins. She must be quite rich. This opportunity would not come again. Tom wracked his head on what to answer to get those coins.

“U-Uh… Both? The young lady didn’t die in the end, and she wasn’t raped either. I don’t know why my dad had to die. And… Uh, why is rape bad?”

“Your answer is such a mess, where do I even start?”

“No, my dad… Sure, in the end, all that’s left of my dad and uncle were their corpses. The lady might have even wanted to do it on the street.”

“I… don’t think so. Honestly, your dad’s filthy and ugly. Why would a young, rich woman want to do that with a man like your… Mmh.”

Tom tried to think of Thomas’ strengths, then he remembered what his father used to say like a habit—his pride.

“He’s big down there.”

“Ah.”

As the girl’s expression changed as though she heard something unexpected, Tom continued excitedly.

“And we don’t know in the end. Only their corpses were left. Why is rape worse than murder? In the end, it’s because he’s not a noble. All nobles will eat well and live well anyway.”

Wrong answer. There’s no way a rich girl would understand his perspective on this or that.

Tom knew that he lost his chance at those gold coins. Still, he couldn’t endure the anger welling up inside him. It’s like this every day. Just so he could eat, he did this every day. Wouldn’t it be over after he had counted to a hundred? But Tom was so angry about this.

What’s wrong with that? There were several prostitutes and gigolos on the street, and it’d be over in no time after they open their legs or mouths. If it was punishable by death, then about fifty villagers deserved to die.

“…I wanted a new answer.”

“You think it’s fun seeing me like this?”

“Kinda.”

The girl covered her lips and chuckled.

Right then, Tom wanted to knock her down. To attack her.

“Why are you here, Miss Hare?”

“Oh my. Hello, Sir Raymond. Thank you for participating in the trial. It’s over, right? I had absolutely nothing to do in my room.”

That thought ended in the face of incredulity. The blond knight, who Tom saw at the courtroom, tripped Tom’s legs before he knew it. And as Tom fell down, his line of sight saw only the red-headed girl’s body, and she just stood there without looking back at him.

“U-Uh…”

As he fell, his face was in pain. Despair rushed in.

“…Don’t go out for no reason. Please return home.”

“I wasn’t really shocked by any of it, Sir Raymond. I’m fine.”

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The girl replied with a smile. Then, she raised Tom back to his feet and whispered to him.

“At dawn, come in through the back door of the Fief Lord’s mansion. I’ll give you the gold coins. And I have something to tell you about your father.”

Tom could not reject the offer.

* * *

His head was hurting. He could feel blood trickling through his hair. It was prickly, this pain.

After the trial, he went to the back entrance of the fief lord’s mansion. But he was suddenly hit on the back of his head and he lost consciousness. When he opened his eyes, his hands and legs were all tied up. As his mouth was gagged by a piece of cloth, all he could say was, Mmph, mmph. He couldn’t move because he was tied very tightly. And here, Tom had no choice but to look at Carynne Hare.

Before him, Carynne waved her hand as a greeting when she saw that Tom had woken up.

“You’re up?”

He couldn’t answer. She turned away from Tom and continued what she had been doing. She was sweating from all the hard work. Carynne continued to speak quietly as she hacked away. Tom finally realized. He’d been fooled.

“……!”

“I need to trust my senses, right?”

As flesh and bones were being cut with a wire saw, the sound of it sent chills down his spine.

Now Tom knew—when humans were being cut, the sound was the same as when animal meat was being cut. Humans were the same as animal meat.

Tom wanted to scream out loud, but his mouth was gagged. He wanted to cover his ears, but his limbs were firmly tied. All Tom could do was writhe. And that meat—the human who had now become meat—was someone he once knew. Tom realized why he was beckoned to this place. It was because of that meat.

“So, I need a witness.”

Tom knew that it was him who needed to witness something. Carynne threw away the saw that had flesh on it, then took out a new saw. Sweat trickled down. It appeared like she was overwhelmed with the work, but she showed no signs of stopping. There was a shine to her eyes, the feeling of fulfillment at the hard labor.

“Huu, I didn’t personally see Nancy, so I don’t know how many parts there should be. Usually, um… The arms, legs, head. Six parts, then? Right? No, maybe not six parts. I don’t think it’s like this.”

If only he could open his mouth, Tom would have already screamed. Anyone would. And when Tom checked the head of the corpse, he soiled himself. Carynne took the chopped off head and placed it next to Tom.

“So today, I want you to watch this for a bit. You can’t sleep, okay?”

He would not be able to sleep.

* * *

The texture of the child’s brown, curly hair felt good on her hand as she stroked it. Carynne corrected Tom’s posture so that he could sit upright. He would have to endure for one entire day, so she prepared this herself. Tying his hands and feet and covering his mouth while he was passed out, she gave him some water and medicine.

“The weather outside isn’t not cold anymore, so I don’t need to light up the fireplace.”

With his eyes trembling in fear, Tom struggled abruptly when he saw the face of the corpse.

“Shh, shh. Stay still. He was already dead anyway, you know. He won’t touch you. It’s safe.”

Oh, Tom. It’s me you have to be wary of, not the corpse. However, as though he was having a seizure, Tom tried to get away from the dead body, so Carynne had to hold the block of wood in her hands threateningly again.

Would she need to give him morphine, she wondered, grumbling. But a nine-year-old child’s body was too small, and Carynne didn’t know the appropriate dosage for him. If he were to die prematurely because of the drug, then it was only Carynne who’d suffer in the aftermath. It’s not that she didn’t understand Tom’s confusion, but she had her own reasons. Initially, she had another corpse in mind for this.

She didn’t really want to disturb him like this. Carynne patted the child’s small back and spoke.

“Even if you tell me to be strong, this is going to be my only chance… The difference between a man and a woman’s physical strength is just… Even if I try to kill more, everyone’s busy, and I can never be alone, and I’m weak, too… In the end, the only person I could kill is a kid like you. I wish I was stronger. Hm? Sorry, don’t cry. You can’t live long anyway.”

That’s why you’re the easiest prey. Carynne draped a blanket over Tom.

“It’s all a matter of time, you know. In reality, you have much too many diseases. You don’t know that your curly hair will soon fall out. And you have blisters on your hands and feet, then sores in your mouth, and… You worked too hard, didn’t you?”

The market value of his body wasn’t as high as expected. Carynne spoke while she was disinfecting him. This treatment might just be in vain, but the weak feeling of camaraderie made her do so anyway. The child was either severely blistered or swollen here and there, and the fragile parts of his body now had bizarre appearances caused by inflammation.

It was going to be impossible for him to grow up normally. No, Carynne wrestled with her memories. In the end, even if Carynne brought him here, Tom would die in a month’s time. It was meaningless to think about him growing.

So, in the end, this was all too easy of a choice. To conduct her experiment, she needed a dead body and an orphan who no one cared about. It hurt her pride a little, but that’s all.

“If I have to choose strong points… Since he’s your father, the son will be the best candidate to watch him, right?”

Thomas was fortunately entirely intact and moistened. The bodies of the criminals had been prepared by the prosecutor before the trial, and their insides were empty due to a simple preservative treatment of the corpses.

After the trial, Carynne picked up the body that was discarded and essentially treated as mountain manure. She chose Hans for this at first out of anger—he was the one who stabbed her—but she soon thought that Tom’s father, Thomas, would be better so that the child could focus more while watching the body. Apart from that, Thomas was lighter than Hans.

“Even so, I’m glad he hasn’t started rotting yet.”

The door closed behind her.

Tom was forced to make eye contact with Thomas’ dismembered head—then closed his own eyes. He’d rather die. Thomas’ eyes were no different than a dead animal’s eyes. The empty stare was so sickening that Tom prayed for Carynne to return and conduct whatever experiment she was doing.

His entire body was bound, but he was free to open or close his eyes. He was going to sleep until she returned. He prayed that, as he was sleeping, he would never wake up again. He would rather just die while he was asleep.

However, as frost seeped into his body from the frigid floor, he was reminded of his cold reality. Even when he was covered in these blankets, the cold would not go away.

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