Chapter 353: Who’s Crazier? (6)

“Keter, Keter, Keter...” Crown Prince Rukan repeated the name several times before suddenly rising to his feet.

He had been born crippled and had used a wheelchair since childhood, yet now he stood. On the other hand, Darian, who was standing outside the door, suddenly collapsed. A sudden suicidal impulse overwhelmed him, and he began strangling his own throat.

The walls of Rukan’s chamber were more than a meter thick, yet Rukan’s presence pierced through them and pressed down upon Darian.

“That bastard came here?”

Rukan’s question carried no emotion.

Darian barely managed to stop choking himself and replied mechanically, “N-no. Keter is at the Browning Duchy. He said he came to meet you, Your Highness, and I heard it personally.”

“Keter...”

“He swore upon his soul that you would regret it if you refused to meet him, which is why I reported it, Your Highness.”

It was a provocative message, yet Rukan’s expression did not change. Recently, his emotions had grown dull. Only days ago, hearing that name, or even looking south toward Sefira, had soured his mood. Now he felt nothing. More importantly, there was also something the Godfather had said to him.

“For the time being, you need not concern yourself with the south, especially not Keter. You understand?”

The Godfather told him to not concern himself with Sefira or Keter. As Rukan recalled those words, his hatred, anger, and even interest in Keter seemed to vanish.

“I have no intention of meeting him. Dispose of Keter as you see fit.”

Rukan’s eyes began to close again, when...

“Keter said that if you refuse to meet him, Your Highness, he will assume it is the Godfather’s will and accept that.”

In the darkness, a blood-red glint flared. Rukan’s rigid face twitched, then twisted.

“That bastard Keter...”

What Keter had just asked was whether he was merely a puppet controlled by the Godfather. That struck at Rukan’s deepest nerve. Though he denied it, somewhere in his heart lingered the doubt.

What if it’s true?

The first provocation meant nothing, but the second struck home.

Rukan strode toward the door. Though called a door, it was merely a wall. It was constructed so it could never be opened from the inside, for the sake of the ritual Rukan was undergoing.

Rukan pressed his palm against it. Astonishingly, the thick wall fell like water. A full meter of stone parted in less than a second.

“Y-Your Highness...” Darian said, flat on the ground.

Rukan glanced down at himself.

“Bring me clothes. And where is Keter now?”

“We deceived him by saying we would arrange a meeting with you, Your Highness. We have currently confined him in a small villa in the mountain valley.”

“I will go meet him. I am curious why he sought me out and what he wishes to say. But...”

Rukan opened his mouth. His teeth were unnaturally sharp.

“...one only needs a mouth to speak. Tear off his limbs. I will go in one hour.”

* * *

Keter wandered around the small villa, looking the place over. It was cramped, but it had everything: a kitchen and cookware, a wardrobe and bed, a four-person table and sofa.

“Hm.”

It wasn’t flashy, but built with good materials and clearly well-maintained.

“So you’re not going to let me meet you easily.”

However, Keter immediately sensed this was trouble. The things that look harmless were often the most dangerous.

“If I try to leave again, a barrier will probably activate.”

He could feel a faint ripple of mana. He had felt it even before entering, but he pretended not to notice. If he didn’t play along and act “caught,” Rukan wouldn’t come to see him. Unlike with Rakan, threatening him by hanging Milky Way in the sky wouldn’t work here.

“That bastard wouldn’t care even if his own child were taken hostage.”

At least Keter genuinely meant it when he said Rakan was more human than Rukan, not just because of the Demon Capital monsters, but because of the first impression alone.

“Still... he hasn’t abandoned the human part of him entirely. He’ll come see me.”

Maybe he wouldn’t, but that was fine too. Rukan wouldn’t simply let Keter go; he would definitely show Keter his Demon Capital monsters. At the very least, that would be entertaining.

“So when are you coming alreeeaaady...”

Keter flopped onto the sofa and hummed.

Then...

“Speak of the goblin.[1]”

A blatant presence could be felt outside, but it wasn’t human. By the time Keter noticed, he was already surrounded. It was quite loose enough to be almost careless, as if they trusted the barrier magic completely.

“Or they think it doesn’t matter even if it’s loose.”

There were about four of them. It was not merely four, since each one was a creature on par with a Grandmaster.

“Someone’s controlling them.”

Demon Capital monsters weren’t allies. They fought and ate each other. Yet these things were moving in an orderly circle to surround him. That meant one thing—someone was controlling them.

“How do I make this fun?”

If he’d never fought Demon Capital monsters, the fight alone would’ve been exciting, but he’d done it in his past life. Simply trading blows sounded a little dull. Of course, they were Demon Capital monsters. Even a straightforward fight would be at least somewhat entertaining. Still, it felt predictable.

“Ah. How about this?”

Keter tapped the wooden floor a couple times.

Thump, thump.

Then he grinned.

A moment later...

Crash!!

The villa wall exploded inward as the monsters burst inside. Each was grotesque in its own way. There was a huge single eye with bat wings, a spider with a human face, a hedgehog studded with blades, and a gout, faceless human.

They smashed their way in, then did nothing. The one with eyes scanned the room, the one that tracked by scent flared its nostrils, and the one with echolocation fired pulses everywhere, but Keter was gone. They had been ordered to kill the human inside the villa, but the human wasn’t there. So they froze there, like dolls.

After ten minutes, a man in a monk’s robe stepped into the ruined villa.

“

Tsk.

He ran?”

There was a hole in the floor. It was quite wide and deep.

“Did he learn magic? No human hands could dig something like that.”

Neither Rukan nor Rakan knew about the Terra Ring, one of the Five Element Relics. So the sudden tunnel puzzled the robed man, but he didn’t dwell on it.

The man pulled a flute from his robe. It looked like a human finger. He raised it and played. No sound came out, but the monsters seemed to receive a command, as two slipped down into the tunnel, and the other two went back outside.

“So troublesome... that Keter.”

After ordering the monsters to retrieve the escaped human, the Demon Capital tamer sat down on the sofa.

“The Divine Bow of the South or not, he’s busy running like a mole in the face of the Demon Capital monsters. Haha.”

“I am indeed busy.”

“...?!”

Riip.

The tamer reached for the dagger at his waist, but a hand shot out from inside the sofa faster than the tamer, clamped over his mouth, and wrenched his arm behind his back. Then Keter’s face appeared from within the sofa. The tamer’s eyes widened.

“Mmph?!”

“You. Why do you sit so hunched? I’ll fix your posture.”

Crack!

“Mmmph!!!!”

The tamer’s spine bowed like a drawn bow. With a single motion, Keter had taken away his ability to ever walk again.

“Oops. Maybe it wasn’t that bone. Was it here?”

Crack!

“Aghh!!!”

The pain was so intense that blood and saliva streamed out between Keter’s fingers.

“If it hurts, raise your hand.”

Crack!!

Keter dislocated the man’s shoulder while telling him to raise his hand.

“Ugh. Nasty.”

Keter wiped the spit and blood on the man’s robe and tossed him onto the floor.

“Alright. From now on, your name is Hans. Hans, what kind of food do you like?”

“Agh... Keter, the Divine Bow of the South, was hiding in a sofa like a thief. Aren’t you ashamed?” Hans mocked Keter.

It seemed like Hans could still take more.

Keter nodded.

“What? You like pasta?”

Keter walked to the kitchen and began bringing back various cooking tools. However, Hans’ expression remained arrogant.

“Heh. Torture me all you want. It’s just a waste of time.”

“Huh?”

Squelch!

Keter casually stabbed Hans’s thigh with a metal skewer. Hans’ expression still didn’t change.

“Ah. So that’s it.”

Hans couldn’t feel pain. The groan earlier hadn’t been from pain; it had been anger at being ambushed. All Demon Capital tamers were immune to torture. They couldn’t feel pain at all.

Keter pulled several thin needles from a small pouch at his waist and, without hesitation, began driving them into Hans’ scalp. At that moment...

“No matter what you do, I... Ngh?!”

At first, it felt like a tickle, then the sensation expanded and sharpened into agony.

“A-ah...”

Keter clicked his tongue while adjusting the needles across Hans’ head.

“Whoever did your procedure did a sloppy job. If it were me, I’d have removed the pain nerves entirely. That guy only disabled them, which means I can just switch them back on.”

It was easy to say, but impossible for any ordinary physician in this world. Only one group could do it: the healers of the Gray Tower, infamous for inhumane dissections and experimental operations. Keter was the disciple of Franken, the master of the tower.

Tap.

“Aaaaagh!!!!!”

With a single needle, Hans rediscovered pain and screamed. It was loud enough to be heard hundreds of meters away, but there was no one to hear it. They had set up a magical barrier to trap Keter. Even sound couldn’t leak out.

“Sir, you must be very satisfied with the procedure. I’m doing it for free because you look so delighted.”

Keter wiped blood and bodily fluids from the needle onto Hans’ robe and picked up the cooking tools again.

Clink. Clink.

At the sound of utensils, Hans began trembling like a leaf.

Whoosh!

“Do you know how to make pasta? It looks easy, but it actually takes a lot of work. First you knead the flour...” Keter said as he brought down a heavy hardwood mallet onto Hans’ thick thigh.

“Guhk!”

Hans’ skin split, and blood sprayed onto Keter’s face. Keter wiped it off, frowning.

“

Tsk

. Too much splatter.”

In Liqueur, Keter had many nicknames. One of them was the Human Chef because he “cooked” people alive. No one had ever endured Keter’s torture without spilling their secrets. Cruel wasn’t enough to describe it. In his past life, if he needed information, he had done it without hesitation, but...

Maybe it’s because I’ve been hanging around my brothers, but I really don’t feel like it.

It wasn’t that he regretted or felt ashamed of what he’d done. It just felt unpleasant now.

“If I don’t like it, I don’t do it. That’s me.”

Keter set the mallet down. Hans, thinking that meant Keter was giving up, let out a breath of relief, but that was when another needle sank into Hans’ head.

“Huh?!”

“But I still need answers.”

Keter had no issue using coercive acupuncture to force a confession.

“Alright. Now tell me: what’s the mechanism behind how you control Demon Capital monsters?”

1. It’s an old wordplay from Chapter 33 and Chapter 34. ☜