Even a Scoundrel Gets Tired

41 – Midterm Evaluation (16)

My sight, now blackened, was sucked into some unseen abyss,

my injured body flung aside, eliciting yet another scream.

Clots of blood and moans escaped my lips of their own accord,

but I had no energy left to writhe in agony.

The moment my vision returned, I saw a fist before my eyes.

Instinctively, I turned my head to the right, narrowly avoiding the blow,

but my legs, still weak, would not carry me far.

I couldn’t evade the fist that followed,

and I fell, my face, unable to lift myself properly, met the sole of a boot.

*Thwack-*

Darkness surrounded me, the terrain barren and desolate.

The owner of the foot planted on my face seized my neck, lifting me up,

and only then could I see his face clearly.

His pupils were tinged with a violet hue,

and a viscous, black energy emanated from his grip.

“Kuh-heh-heh… it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“…Long… cough.”

“Yes, far too long. You can’t imagine how I’ve waited… hahaha.”

As he spoke, plunging his fist into my abdomen,

blood spattered, spraying with a *shiiik-* sound.

Soon, the fist withdrew, replaced by a mangled, black mass of flesh.

“Cough… cuh-huhb.”

“Puhahahaha!! I could fly!!”

I gritted my teeth against the pain that distorted my insides.

Perhaps because of this, a massive amount of blood flooded my mouth.

I desperately covered my mouth with my hands, but I couldn’t stop the flow from my nose,

and the sight of me bleeding seemed to fill him with glee, eliciting a constant, unsettling laughter.

“How is it? Does it hurt? Are you suffering?!”

“…”

“Whatever it may be, it’s less than I have… Heh heh.”

“…Do you hold a grudge against me?”

I asked, having absolutely no clue,

but his reaction was more dramatic than I could have imagined.

Thin veins started to appear faintly on his forehead,

and his eyes were already turning a reddish hue.

His grip on my neck tightened,

and the hand not holding me trembled violently.

He twisted his smiling face into a savage snarl, bellowing at me.

“You… YOUUU!!!!”

“Cough… speak…”

“Because of you!! Do you even know what I’ve become?!!!!”

Naturally, I had no way of knowing about that, and

seeing the cluelessness in my eyes, he seized my throat in a brutal grip,

then loudly recounted everything that had happened to him after that.

“…Is that… my fault?”

“…What?”

Of course, I couldn’t comprehend his actions, and

he asked me again, as if he’d misheard.

“…Say it again…”

“So… why is that… my… *cough*.”

“Say it again.”

“That’s not my fault… *cough*.”

The exchange repeated several times, but the content remained the same,

and each time, his grip tightened and loosened.

After quite some time, when the exchange still hadn’t changed,

he flung me violently to the ground as if frustrated.

“Cough…”

“Seems you still don’t know what you’ve done wrong… you.”

“…”

“A wretch who lost his house and turned into a commoner.

The very act of sighing in my presence was the problem.”

Saying that, he flashed a bitter smile,

continuing with his story.

“Did you think there were people who still had good feelings toward you?

I guarantee you, at least at the Academy, there’s not a single person who thinks well of you.”

“…”

“I was generously going to educate you, shouldn’t you have accepted that gratefully?”

“…”

“If you had obediently received my education, you might have become somewhat useful, hahahaha!!”

After speaking and laughing his fill, he didn’t get the reaction he wanted.

His face hardened again, as if bored, and he stomped hard on my abdomen.

The very spot that had caved in from the earlier blow.

“A… aaack!!”

“Why no reply? Not become mute all of a sudden, have you?”

“Fr… Heheheh.”

Clearly, an excruciating pain was to be felt, but not liking my smile,

He lifted his foot from my abdomen and stamped down right on my left thumb.

“What’s so amusing?”

*Crack-*

“I asked, what’s so amusing?”

*Crack-*

“Still finding humor in this?! Even now?!”

*Crack-*

*Snap-*

*Crack-*

First my thumb, then index, middle, and finally my little finger, each broken in turn, yet the laughter wouldn’t cease pouring from my lips. He looked at me, almost bored.

“Hee hee… heh…”

“WHAT!! Is so damn funny!!”

“Don’t you… don’t you really know?”

“…Know what.”

“That everything that’s happened… it’s all because you lost to me, isn’t it?”

*Bang-*

The sound of Leon slamming my head into the floor echoed as I finished speaking, a bitter smile twisting my lips.

“Ugh… uh…”

“…Fine, I’ll kill you slowly, just as you wish.”

With those words, he seized my face in one hand and with the other, grasped my already broken left hand.

*Crack-*

*Tear-*

“Ghk… aagh…”

“I’ll be so kind as to tell you precisely what I intend to do to you now.”

“…”

“First, I shall slowly pull out each finger, one by one.

Slowly enough that you can observe the flesh tearing and stretching.”

“…”

“Once all the fingers are gone, then it will be the toes’ turn.

Although, it wouldn’t be interesting if I did the same thing, so I shall dig out your toes instead.”

As he said this, Leon removed my shoe, placing his fingers on my right big toe.

He pressed down hard.

I felt his sharp nails digging into my flesh, and I winced, but he didn’t care. He continued pressing.

The pressure continued to increase, until finally, I felt the tendons connected to the toe snap, and his finger began digging into the top of my foot.

“Guh… eugh…”

“Yes… slowly like this.”

As if tilling a field with a hoe, he literally dug out my toe.

Where toes had been, scars remained, each the thickness of Leon’s fingers.

He waved the bloodied stumps before my face as if they were some kind of prize,

and blood, too, flowed from my bitten lip as I fought to stay conscious.

“Next is the face. Your face has always irritated me.”

“…”

“I’ll peel the skin from your face in a very thin layer. Expose the eyes and cheekbones. Khee hee.”

“…”

“Now, finally, I see fear in your eyes.”

“..Think you have the time?”

He tilted his head at my words, then a look of realization dawned on him,

and he burst into raucous laughter, wiping away tears.

“Puhahaha!! You… *choke*…you were counting on the Headmaster?!

Ah, so *that’s* why you’ve been so insolent.”

“…”

“I’m sorry to say, even the Headmaster can’t breach this place so easily.”

“…?”

“Rumor has it, this is demon magic. Even that Headmaster will need time to unravel it!”

Demon (魔族).

A race that freely wields demon energy, granting wishes in exchange for a price.

I had, foolishly, not considered this angle.

Before me stood a fiend. A human imbued with demonic power.

That meant he had a demonic ally,

and they couldn’t have invaded the Academy without considering the Headmaster.

The Headmaster might be versed in all magic, but that was limited to human magic.

He wouldn’t know the demon magic, rarely witnessed as it was.

So naturally, rescuing me would take time,

and what I would endure in the meantime was painfully obvious.

It’ll be alright. I’ve always endured, it’s second nature—

“Kheheh… done contemplating?”

*Snap*—

The sound of him tearing away another of my remaining fingers.

The flesh connecting finger to hand stretched in thin, tearing strands,

and each severance brought fresh waves of agony.

“I’ll tell you now… if they grow back, I’ll just pluck them again…”

I clenched my teeth to withstand the pain, but it didn’t lessen.

He still gripped my neck, slowly plucking at my fingers with his free hand,

watching my reaction. But I still had my right hand.

I hastily swung my blade towards his neck, but it bounced off as soon as it touched him.

*Ting*—

Like striking solid steel.

Leon’s expression, witnessing my actions, intensified, growing even more savage as he twisted a finger and wrenched it free.

“Kghaaa…ah…”

“If you have any strength left to resist, save it for staying conscious.”

“Kgh…euh…”

“After all, I believe I can afford to indulge for perhaps five minutes.”

What followed was a familiar hell.

He twisted my broken fingers slowly, very slowly, until they came free, and

I could do nothing but suffer the full brunt of the pain.

Though I’d endured it countless times, I never grew accustomed to it, and even if I succumbed to unconsciousness,

he would always force me awake, resuming his particular amusement.

When finally all my fingers were gone, he turned his gaze to my feet.

As he had warned me beforehand, he began to excavate my toes, slowly, with great care,

taking his time.

Unlike the pain of bone snapping and flesh tearing,

I felt a new pain, where flesh and muscle were crushed and sinews severed, and

I screamed relentlessly, never tiring.

Quenching his thirst with the unceasing flow of blood, he finally

dug out all my toes, leaving my feet a literal tattered mess.

A useless, ruined rag, beyond repair.

“Next… as I said… is here.”

He pointed to my face as he spoke, and, hoarse from screaming, I could only tremble my eyelids.

A black blade had already appeared in his hand, and

it began to descend just below my eye.

Struggling with all my might proved utterly futile against his magically enhanced physique.

And so, he slowly, as one might prepare sashimi, thinly sliced the skin from my face,

leaving it resembling raw meat.

Each time the sounds of *scritch-scritch* and *tzhiick* echoed in my ears,

a lightning-like pain surged through my face, and

my screams grew louder until Leon, seemingly bothered by the noise, simply clapped a hand over my mouth,

continuing his work nonetheless.

The stifled screams filled the black-walled space, echoing back.

*

“Now, *that’s* a face worth looking at.”

Leon uttered the words with a truly gleeful smile, having completed his “work.”

Before him lay a man collapsed and unconscious, his appearance

too grotesque for words.

His fingers and toes lay scattered around in a pool of blood, and

What had been his hands and feet were pulped beyond recognition.

A sight that would send most running in terror,

but his own face only grew more grave.

His face, eyelids sheared away, eyeballs laid completely bare,

and the skin peeled back besides.

Cheekbones exposed, lips ripped clean off.

Looking at this face, which one might mistake for a skull roughly draped in flesh,

Leon’s smile widened with satisfaction.

Whether it was the awakening of his sadistic nature upon becoming a Majin,

a feeling akin to elation danced within his heart now.

He longed to relish it further, but lingering longer was dangerous.

The Chairman’s potential intrusion was breathing down his neck.

Regretfully deciding to end his amusement there, he plunged

a black blade deep into his heart.

Ensuring that freakish resilience of his would never resurrect him again.

‘In the end, *I* survived… I won, didn’t I.’

He was the victor, and the victor is always right. Therefore, he had done nothing wrong.

Thinking so, he went to leave the scene, but

his feet suddenly would not move.

Because of the being directly behind him, rolling eyes now turned white.

[Sorr… sob… ry, A… yden…]