I Possessed the Heroine’s Teacher

A week later.

In the cold underground torture room, only the shrill, dry screams of a broken neck echoed.

“Arrghhhh!!!!”

“Kill me! Just kill me, you crazy bastard!!!”

It’s still far from over. These bastards needed to taste at least one ten-thousandth of the pain they inflicted on their victims before they died. So… it’s still a long way to go. The young man and woman who had challenged me said they were the commanders of Gawain’s direct unit.

That bastard Gawain… At first, I couldn’t find any trace of him, but they said his body was found 20 kilometers away from the explosion site. As a result, the number of deaths from the explosion rose to three. Old butler Halstead, the aforementioned Gawain, and Count Halstead, the loyal subject of the Crown Prince.

I didn’t know him well. I had only met him face-to-face once, and that encounter lasted no more than 20 minutes. If I were to mourn for him or shed tears, it would be crocodile tears. I wasn’t so evil as to insult such a person with fake sadness and crocodile tears.

“Bring me the hot tongs.”

“But, Sir Werner… Why the tongs? It’s not like a heated branding iron…”

“Tongs… they’re good for grabbing something, but also for spreading something apart… especially when they’re hot.”

I didn’t know much about Count Halstead either. But he had carried out a suicide bombing that turned a 1-kilometer radius into powder, recommended mini-evacuations to nearby residents, and the villagers followed such sudden orders, which meant he was probably a good lord. That alone was reason enough to torture these trash.

“Sir Werner, here are the hot tongs!”

Even the veteran torture specialist seemed quite tense.

“Look at this. We shaved all the hair off your body, cut off your fingers and toes, hammered nails into your body, applied lacquer to your skin, didn’t let you sleep, pierced one of your eardrums with an awl, and pulled out some of your teeth. That’s all, right? Stop whining and pay attention.”

I showed them the sight of me tapping the tongs, which had turned red at the tips, on the floor.

“Can you see it clearly? Now, what do you think I’ll do with this? Let me tell you in advance, I don’t have a hobby of cooking for scum like you.”

“So, what then…”

“It’s an expansion project. I’m going to expand every hole in your bodies.”

As soon as I said that, their faces darkened. It was definitely one of the most brutal forms of torture I knew.

“If you hate it that much, I’ll save one of you. I’ll only deal with the scummiest one among you.”

At that, they started to slander each other. One had allegedly dissected a 7-year-old child because he wanted to see inside, another raped a daughter in front of her father, another made decorations from human skin, and yet another burned people alive… Just the kind of disgusting stories you’d never want to hear.

“Alright, I’ve made my decision.”

An ancient sage once said that if you’re faced with a choice between two options, you should just choose both.

Those who admired my wisdom responded with sharp screams and pleas for death.

The smell of cooking meat started wafting up.

“Let’s stop the torture here. We weren’t going to get any useful information from them anyway.”

Most of the information was already sent in a letter by Count Halstead to the Crown Prince, so it wasn’t necessary. After all, the tortures I had done up until now weren’t for information gathering, but simply to inflict pain. But listening to the trash babble made me a little heated.

“Sir Werner, what should we do with them now…?”

“Sell them to a brothel in a slum with very bad security. Oh, and don’t forget to sever their limbs and pluck their tongues, then burn out their eyes.”

“And the man…?”

“Sell him too. It doesn’t matter, since there are plenty of people in those slum brothels who don’t care about that stuff.”

“Yes!”

After dealing with the trash, I became concerned about the blood splattered on my clothes and face. Blood is a particularly annoying substance—if it stains your clothes, it’s hard to wash out, and if it’s on your face, it’s hard to scrape off. Plus, there’s the nauseating smell of rot. This blood was always a problem for people who lived in the shadows.

“…Have you finished, Sir?”

“Yes, Your Highness…”

The Crown Prince seemed somehow emaciated, indicating that the death of his loyal retainer had indeed been a shock. After all, Halstead had been a subordinate and friend who had loyally served the Crown Prince since his childhood, so it was a natural response.

“What brings you here? This doesn’t seem like the kind of place someone like you should visit…”

“I’ve come to discuss the contents of the letter that Count Halstead sent… and the matter concerning Gawain’s corpse.”

“… I see, it must be heard.”

The contents of the letter from Halstead were as follows: The Black Round Table had been collecting all sorts of items from all over the country. Not just relics once used by heroes like Werner, but also various magic swords, rare magical tomes, and even cursed corpses or objects… It was insane.

Moreover, they were targeting the Spirit Kings. Most of the Spirit Kings’ locations were uncertain, so it seemed they were having difficulty tracking them down. But then they became suspicious of the unusually high iron production in Halstead’s territory, and this was said to be the catalyst for everything.

“So… in the end, Count Halstead lost everything because of iron.”

“Yes… it’s a tragic fact…”

“Those Black Round Table bastards are unforgivable…”

Once again, such a fool had died recklessly. A fool who prioritized others over himself.

“And there’s something suspicious about the death of this man named Gawain.”

“What do you mean?”

“First, the location where his body was found was strange. He must have been caught in the explosion, but they found him 20 kilometers away…”

“Well, he’s a monster, so maybe he tried to escape but just didn’t have the strength…”

“Yes, I thought the same, so I thoroughly investigated the area.”

The Crown Prince then took out a scroll from his chest.

“This is the report sent by the subordinate I assigned to the investigation.”

I couldn’t help but be shocked when I read the contents of the report.

It included a witness testimony from someone who had seen the scene. The witness, who was on their way back from selling iron at a nearby village, had described seeing a blonde man crawling across the ground, burned all over his body, trying to leave the village. In front of him, a black-haired elf appeared, and the blonde man seemed to be pleading for help, grabbing at the elf’s pants. However, after taking a few items from him, the elf abandoned him and left. The blonde man screamed and then collapsed, eventually dying.

“This is the testimony of the person who first discovered the body. It’s probably accurate.”

The blonde man was definitely Gawain… and the black-haired elf must have been…

“Your Highness… could you look into a man named Raven Peony?”

“Is his surname Peony?”

“Don’t ask, don’t question… just don’t tell anyone, please.”

“Yes, if it’s your request…”

I had a headache in many ways. I stepped outside to get some fresh air, but all kinds of thoughts swirled in my head like scattered manuscripts. The Black Round Table. Raven, Iris, Glacies, Lorcha, Camellia… there were so many factors I needed to worry about.

“By the way, my lord.”

“Ah, damn, you scared me.”

Ah, that’s right, there was this one too. The Spirit King of Steel, Armadura. He was the one contracted at the Halstead territory’s iron mine.

“May I speak of the matter we didn’t finish discussing last time?”

“Go ahead, it’s not like it’s going to be more serious than the problems I’m dealing with now.”

At this point, I felt like my head might explode, so it wouldn’t matter if I learned who my parents were. Whether they were alive and well or dead, it didn’t matter to me. If they lived well, fine; if they were dead, I wouldn’t mourn too much. It would be a relief if they didn’t come to find me and leech off me.

“We, the Spirit Kings, were all created by the Primordial Mother. She is the goddess worshiped by humans.”

Ah, I think I heard something like this in the game’s backstory. The goddess who uses a raven as her avatar, was it?

“The Primordial Mother, bored from loneliness, made us as her pets by pulling out her own fingernails.”

I didn’t know about such a dirty creation myth.

“But eventually, the Mother pitied the humans of this planet and sent us down to this world.”

So, they weren’t Spirit Kings… they were aliens.

“And the Mother herself forged new souls with her own hands. The human born from that soul was…”

“Who is this, my mother?”

“No, Werner, it’s you.”

“… Wait, what the hell? Can you explain this properly, you hedgehog bastard?”