Chapter 2: Allies in Prison

A huge cloud of dust rose up from the uncleaned floor as the door was slammed shut.

The dark, foul-smelling room was so quiet as to be frightening. All Wang Yu could hear was heavy breathing from other humans in the vicinity.

Among intermittent bouts of laughter was the sound of footsteps heading away. No one seemed to think much of him, a prisoner in a former woodshed that had been converted into a prison cell.

I really have to thank you for being assholes. This is my opportunity to take revenge!

Wang Yu had been pretending to be unconscious while the bandits brought him all the way back to their camp.

Although pain radiated from every part of his body, it was at a level he could easily handle simply by gritting his teeth.

Upon being deposited in his prison cell, Wang Yu pretended to "awaken" before starting to scream and struggle appropriately.

The bandits tended to beat and torture their captives, and did like to see them in pain, after all.

After beating Wang Yu's face bloody, the head bandit, Beran, sneered as he nailed Wang Yu's right hand to the wall with three long nails.

Wang Yu cooperated by screaming in pain and shuddering throughout the process.

It was evident, however, that Beran wouldn't be satisfied with mere physical pain. To him, torture was both a hobby and an art form.

Beran raised the old knight's sword up high and stabbed it into Wang Yu's left hand, pinning it to the wall. Bandits held him down as Beran sidled up to his ear and whispered, "It's all your fault that that old geezer died. If he hadn't tried to shove you away, he might not have been struck by that useless Egor's mental attack!

"It's a pity, isn't it? Despite the fact that he saved your life then, well, all he did was subject you to a more terrible fate. Let's hope you can repent for your actions before the hounds kill you tomorrow, shall we?"

Beran attempted to inflict mental trauma on Wang Yu as he jiggled the sword around, causing him intense spasms of pain.

Wang Yu shook his head like a madman, screeching desperately. He tried to lean away from Beran even as he kicked at the bandits around him with his feet.

Each time he did so, however, Beran would only press Wang Yu's head tightly against the wall, forcing him to remain still as Beran whispered insidious thoughts into his ear.

Wang Yu struggled unsuccessfully one last time before his eyes rolled up and he "fainted" once again.

"He's not a bad toy to play with. We'll let him live a little longer tomorrow. Get that noble lad ready, too. Once we inform his family, we'll be able to get a ransom for him quickly. Don't keep messing with him. I know what you perverted bastards are like, but wait until we get the money first. If I learn that you haven't been able to control yourselves..."

Beran stood up and nodded in satisfaction as he looked at Wang Yu, who had "fainted" from shock. He was feeling refreshed and ebullient after the bout of torture.

He instructed his subordinates on what to do next as he thrust a blade into the wooden table by his side, sending splinters of wood flying as the blade penetrated the wood.

"...don't blame me for sending you to a premature death."

Then, he shrugged, left the woodshed, and beckoned for the bandits to follow him out. The bandits thumped their chests, promising to follow his orders.

As the door to the woodshed creaked shut, Wang Yu slowly opened his eyes in the darkness.

He had never thought himself good at acting; all he could do was rely on his pain tolerance to keep himself lucid while screaming in a highly exaggerated fashion.

He couldn't inject any nuance into his acting, but fortunately for him, these sadistic bandits didn't notice anything amiss.

He tried to shift his right hand. The three nails that were pinning it to the wall were in the shape of a triangle, and they didn't seem like they would budge easily. If he tried to move his hand by force, he would tear it to shreds.

He turned toward his left hand. As he pulled, the blade of Reynard's sword tore at his flesh. Blood trailed down the wall, and tides of pain battered at his psyche.

"How vicious. It looks as though it'd be easier to move my left hand than my right, but any movement makes it hurt like hell..."

The sword had pierced through his palm in a slanted fashion and pinned it to the wall securely, without any wiggle room whatsoever. Any motion would tear his flesh, and the tremendous pain would leave him in agony.

Any ordinary person would be trapped without a doubt—and be killed the very next day.

Wang Yu took a deep breath and tore his left palm away from the sword following the slant of the blade, ignoring the pain as his flesh was sliced apart.

Blood sprayed from the gruesome wound.

As quickly as he could, Wang Yu turned his body and used his teeth to pull out the three nails pinning his right hand.

With his right hand freed, Wang Yu hurriedly tore his clothes into ribbons in order to bandage the wound on his left hand...

I suppose I have to thank those bandits for having such vile hobbies. I wouldn't be able to do anything against steel manacles and the like. Not only that, they even left me a weapon! The fact that I only needed to cripple my left hand to free myself is unbelievable luck...

Wang Yu finished bandaging himself and sighed at his "luck." Even under these circumstances, he seemed to harbor an incomprehensible optimism.

The situation was far from ideal. He was likely in the bandits' lair. There would be bandits all around him, and he had no clue in which direction to run away. There were numerous wounds all over his body.

If not for the fact that his body was in a "growth spurt"—if not for the fact that his blood clotted quickly, that his wounds rarely grew infected—his situation would have been even worse.

Perhaps he would have been febrile and incapacitated from infection, then died just like that.

"When there's a will, there's a way. I have to try to escape, don't I? If I stay, I die. If I flee, there's a chance I'll be able to kill them all and escape. The choice is obvious. And to think that that bandit was trying to get me to blame myself for Reynard's death! How laughable. Do they really think I'd feel guilty over what they did? I'll kill them all and avenge Reynard."

Wang Yu, mumbling to himself, began to inspect his surroundings.

The woodshed was a small, cramped space, with the tiniest of windows to serve as illumination and ventilation. A faint sliver of light filtered in.

The air was stale and filled with dust. Something was rotting, and the stench was pervasive and unbearable.

There was an upside to this, at least. No bandit would want to be in the woodshed for any longer than was necessary, and there was little likelihood that his escape would be discovered by the bandits on patrol.

As his eyes gradually acclimated to the darkness, a dim, dark world unfolded before Wang Yu.

There were nothing more than a few odds and ends in the tiny space; some chipped blades, a broken spiked club, some small knives, a saw, and something like a serrated ladle were all tossed haphazardly into a pile in the corner of the woodshed.

It was clear that they were used for torturing whatever prisoners were kept here.

What most attracted Wang Yu's attention was the bound figure by the side of the window.

He seemed to be in far better condition than Wang Yu, who was unlucky enough to have both hands pinned to a wall.

However, the figure's hands and feet seemed to have been cuffed together, making it difficult for him to move about.

He was seated in a corner of the shed, hugging his knees and burying his head in his lap.

He looked helpless and in particularly bad shape. Given the snatches of dialogue Wang Yu had heard along the way here and during his torture, he was probably the young noble held for ransom.

On closer inspection, Wang Yu found that the young man’s clothes were of far better quality than his own unadorned flaxen garb. They were made of fine cloth with exquisite trimming.

Although he wasn't as richly dressed as several ostentatious members of nobility Wang Yu had once seen, it was clear that his wealth was beyond that of a commoner.

In this world, there was a significant disparity between the nobility and the common people.

The resources that the nobility had access to allowed them to grow and develop at a noticeably faster rate, for one, and their level of education was high across the board. Hardly any were fools, and most hid their stereotypical arrogance behind good breeding, etiquette, and a veneer of capability.

Wang Yu needed a partner in crime, and this noble youth wasn't a bad choice.

He didn't believe anything that Beran said about the ransom, at any rate. Beran had likely only said it to pacify his subordinates.

If the young noble's family found out that this group of bandits had kidnapped him, the bandits' heads would all be hung on the city wall before daybreak.

Beran likely planned to sell the young noble to some perverted merchant or magician as a toy or lab rat.

The youth could hardly fare worse with him than by remaining behind.

Wang Yu stepped forward. He didn't intend to force the young noble to help him—so long as he didn't make a ruckus and draw the bandits' attention, that would be good enough.

The youth was curled up by the corner of the shed. He looked particularly frail, and was certainly younger than Wang Yu.

"Hey, are you awake? I'm planning to escape," Wang Yu whispered. "Do you want to join me?"

Upon hearing the commotion, the youth shivered violently as he curled up against the corner of the shed. He raised his head and eyed Wang Yu.

His features were youthful, and Wang Yu estimated that he was fourteen or fifteen years old.

In the darkness, Wang Yu couldn't discern his skin color, but his eyes were a beautiful blue. His exquisite features were the hallmark of nobility; noble bloodlines conferred beauty by and large, and this youth was no exception.

If Wang Yu's looks scored about 55 points out of 100, the youth's would be 85 points or higher.

In his gaze, Wang Yu could discern fear, hesitation, and a smidge of wariness.

Very normal behavior, Wang Yu murmured inwardly.

He knew that he had uncommon mental fortitude, and he wasn't displeased or vexed by the young noble's fear and fright.

"You have to understand that death is the only thing that awaits you here. Why not try to escape with me? We might just manage to make it out—though I can't guarantee we’ll make it. But we have to try, don't we? Your family must be searching for you."

Wang Yu patiently attempted to win the youth over.

His words did seem to have some effect. He noticed that when he brought up "family," the youth's gaze had suddenly focused on him, a sign that the youth was rethinking his current position.

"Why not go for it? We'll die if we stay here, you know? My name is Wang Yu. Don't mind how foreign it sounds—I just don't have the brainpower to come up with a Western-style name for myself. A name's just a series of sounds, anyway. It's enough for you to know who I am. What's your name?"

Wang Yu knew he wasn't particularly eloquent, so he focused on raw honesty and practicality.

Of course, this was only with people he was familiar with or that he had no grudges against. The only language he shared with his enemies was that of his fists.

Perhaps because Wang Yu's unbridled optimism had finally infected the hesitant, cowering youth before him, the youth did speak up.

"My name is... Avia. Avia Dovan."

Before the young noble could finish, Wang Yu clapped the young noble's shoulders with his palms.

Wang Yu noticed that the young noble had paused for a moment before saying his name, but he didn't know why.

Even so, that wasn't important at the moment. He didn't need a friend who trusted him wholeheartedly; rather, he needed the youth before him to shake off his hesitation and start to act.

"Good name. Now, tell me what you're skilled at. Can you fight?"

When Wang Yu placed his palms on the youth's shoulders, he jolted violently.

However, perhaps because of his rapid-fire questions that caught the youth unawares, he answered subconsciously, "I'm, I'm a trainee magician, but I don't know any magic. As for f-fighting, I have this, but I can't do anything while bound."

The youth's voice quavered audibly as he answered Wang Yu's question, then motioned to his handcuffs.

The handcuffs were made of very fine steel chain, but considering the youth's physique, it would still have been overwhelmingly difficult for him to free himself.

It was just like how Wang Yu had been bound—Beran had pinned his palms in such a way as to give him hope, only to have that hope ultimately morph into despair.

Even if Avia Dovan's handcuffs were far more genteel an option cmpared to the cruel torture inflicted on Wang Yu, the inherent malice in both situations was exactly the same.

"I suppose I really should thank these bandits for their malice..."

Wang Yu glanced at his hands. His left hand was still injured beyond usability, so he bit and held the handcuffs in place with his teeth as he wrenched on them with his right hand.

With an audible crack, Wang Yu's physique, at 0.8x the human maximum, broke the fine steel chain.

Avia trembled again at the suddenness of Wang Yu's violence.

He shrugged off the bindings on his wrists as Wang Yu did the same trick with his ankles.

Then, Wang Yu frowned upon seeing that Avia was still somewhat helpless even after he had been freed.

He was simply too timid and frightened of every little thing. Wang Yu hoped that he would prove to be a help rather than a hindrance.

What Avia then revealed, however, immediately stopped Wang Yu from taking him lightly.

On Avia's index finger was a small, light pink ring that blended with his skin and was difficult to discern without careful inspection. The woodshed had been too dark for Wang Yu to notice it before.

Now that Avia's limbs were freed, however, he was able to bring the ring toward his forehead.

Faint light gathered around him as the ring glowed and transformed into an exquisite crossbow that manifested in Avia's hands.

"A magical artifact!" Wang Yu exclaimed. "As expected of a noble. But isn't it rather a waste for it to transform into a crossbow for self-defense?"

Wang Yu was shocked by the sight of the crossbow. After all, magical relics were hardly commonplace.

They weren't particularly valuable to nobles, but in the rural areas that Wang Yu and the old knight Reynard frequented, a traveler could easily go years without seeing anything of the sort.

Under ordinary circumstances, however, magical relics were often produced by enchanting rings or necklaces to cast magic or provide passive boosts.

It was rare to have magical relics like Avia's, which were essentially just miniaturized, portable forms of ordinary weapons. They were hardly useless, of course, but worth far less than most magical relics.

In fact, Wang Yu even recognized the make of this crossbow: the Type II crossbow used by Aleisterre's military, with higher penetrating power than the Type I and silencing runes to boot.

The Type II crossbow's improvements made it more suited for stealth and assassination, and were particularly suited to their current circumstances.

Avia grimaced and nodded, seemingly embarrassed and dejected. "I don't hold a particularly high position in my family, you see. I ended up here because—"

"Hold it! We don't have time to listen to your story right now. Our priority is to escape. Tell me everything once we're out. For the moment, let's prepare to sneak out. We don't have the numbers or strength to fight our way out."

Avia was momentarily stunned by Wang Yu's brusque interruption, but there was no time to waste. Wang Yu grabbed Avia's shoulder and stared into his eyes.

"I don't care about your position in your household. To me, you're incredibly valuable—you're the only ally I have, after all."

Avia blinked. Wang Yu's technique of persuasion and coercion was particularly effective against passive personalities like Avia's, who would end up just going with the flow.

Before Avia could react, Wang Yu released his shoulder, used his right hand to strap a discarded buckler to his left arm, then prepared to set off.

"Let's go! If possible, we'll sneak out without attracting any attention. Otherwise, I'll create opportunities for you to attack with your crossbow," Wang Yu told him.

"Don't worry. Before I die, I won't let them attack you. I'm a tank, after all, and you're the DPS—ah, don't worry too much about what I'm saying. You understand the gist, don't you?"

Wang Yu shook his head. "As for the two dangerous foes we have to worry about, the magician and the knight-in-training, I can handle the magician. For the knight, though... we’ll have to think out of the box."

Wang Yu pulled out a whistle and gave it a serious look.