Jay, who had been naively looking around, narrowed his eyes and observed the noisy area.
Upon realizing that it was the professors causing the commotion, Jay’s eyes widened. He had only ever seen quiet people like Vinoshu among Connubium’s professors, so this was the first time he’d witnessed such a noisy scene.
Come to think of it, weren’t those noisy guys the professors he’d seen in the underground prison? While he was finding interest in the familiar faces, Jay gaped in shock at their appearance.
“A, a student?”
A white school uniform dirtied to a mess. Dark black skin. Dirty cloth wrapped around the face. To Jay’s eyes, the person didn’t look dangerous enough to warrant several professors rushing at them desperately. Rather, the bruises visible even on the face drew sympathy.
However, even with that appearance, Jay couldn’t readily approach. It seemed like there was a story unique to this school that he didn’t know about.
Connubium hadn’t disclosed all information to him, and there were more spaces he couldn’t go to than places he could access. Therefore, Jay thought there might have been some incident in places he didn’t know about.
Moreover, even if he set all that aside and wanted to help, there was no way he could approach with so many professors there. In the end, Jay tried to give up on the idea of approaching the fleeing student and attempted to go back into the classroom.
“Aaaagh!!”
But at that moment, a desperate scream like a beast’s howl burst from Sayed’s mouth. At the heartbreaking desperate cry, Jay unconsciously stopped in his tracks. Only his creaking head turned to the side to look at the student.
In that instant, their eyes met like destiny. Eye color like a clear sky without a single cloud. Within those eyes burned a seething dark red rage like an erupting volcano.
Sayed immediately picked up speed as if he’d been waiting and rushed at Jay. The flustered Jay tried to move his body, but froze as if facing a beast before his eyes.
“There! Move!!”
A professor who belatedly discovered Jay standing dumbly in one side of the corridor waved his arms and shouted, but Jay couldn’t move a single step.
“Urk!”
Sayed, who pounced on and pinned down Jay with heavy breathing, didn’t care that the cloth wrapped around his head was coming askew. He looked that desperate. On the skin revealed by the askew cloth, disfigured scars from burns were vividly embroidered. Having suppressed Jay’s thin limbs, he was close to a savage beast.
Jay, squinting in pain, barely opened his eyes and looked up at him. Unlike the left eye burning with rage, the milky white right eye was rolled up without focus.
“……!”
At that moment, Sayed, who had been breathing roughly, suddenly jumped up startled as if burned and backed away. The hands that had been roughly strangling Jay were flushed red as if burned. Sayed’s eyes shook mercilessly as if he’d seen something unbelievable. His gaze was subtly missing Jay.
Jay, finally freed, staggered up from his spot and opened his mouth.
“Um……”
Thwack!
But the moment Jay was about to say something, a professor full of irritation and anger struck Sayed’s body hard with a club. He managed to withstand the first blow, but the pursuing professors weren’t just one or two, and under the shower of club strikes he eventually collapsed.
“This bastard! How did you escape!”
“Hurry and drag him away! The students are getting anxious!”
Most of the professors quickly bound Sayed and disappeared like the wind somewhere. To the dumbfounded Jay who was staring at them with his mouth open, a professor who remained to handle the aftermath walked over step by step and spoke to him.
“Professor Doe?”
“Ah, yes. Hello-“
“You won’t understand this incident. But I can’t explain, so quietly do what you need to do.”
From the professor who coldly cut off Jay’s words, not a bit of the irritation and anger shown toward Sayed could be seen. It was exactly identical to Vinoshu’s cold appearance, as if cut from the same mold.
The people of Connubium sometimes felt similar, as if all made from the same cast. In a way, it could be said that the education they provided was definitely succeeding.
“Yes……”
Jay spoke quietly at that domineering attitude. The image of Sayed, who couldn’t even scream as he was beaten, was still vivid before his eyes, but Jay squeezed his eyes shut as if trying to forget.
Having heard a submissive answer like the students would give, the professor seemed satisfied and quickly left.
“Haah……”
Jay, left alone in the quiet corridor without even an ant, leaned against the wall and sighed. Over Jay’s shoulders, which looked haggard as if he’d aged ten years, a small lizard poked out its head.
It was my beloved Belly. If Jay had touched his mouth that was flushed red even once, he would have noticed it was hot enough to burn, but in his dazed state, he didn’t even notice that Belly had climbed onto his shoulder.
“……”
Only Belly alone was staring piercingly with sharp eyes flashing with murderous intent at the path where Sayed had disappeared. Continuously until the heavy air in the corridor dissipated.
* * *
After his desperate escape was thwarted, he was dragged back to the original basement in a state worse than a beast. That appearance was so miserable and shabby that one could never guess there had been a time when he was favored by the Sultan.
He wanted to think more about the feeble-looking man he’d seen earlier, but the throbbing pain interfered. It was largely due to being mercilessly beaten on the head with a club.
“Sayed Murad.”
A slightly more spacious area, not the original space where he was confined. The son of a bitch who called me, sitting neatly on a sturdy-looking chair placed squarely in front of me crouching in rags, was clean-shaven. He had an ascetic appearance, and his hair swept up meticulously without a single strand sticking out seemed obsessive.
That bastard seemed to have a higher rank than the other professors who claimed to be educating me, as he didn’t seem to come to the forefront for ordinary matters. The face he was seeing for the first time since arriving here was coldly hardened, which was irritating.
“You know what you’ve done, don’t you?”
It was a despicable voice with cruelty as its foundation, but I didn’t bat an eye. Because right now, that man I saw earlier was more important to me than such a son of a bitch. That man I saw earlier. That man was…….
But the professors wouldn’t nicely let me fall into thought.
“Looking at you, an hour or two won’t do. For a stupid son of a bitch, the stick is the medicine.”
The son of a bitch gestured with his hand wearing cold leather gloves. Following his gesture, numerous machines entered the room. They were machines always brought in for reformation. I had screamed and burst into laughter at those machines.
The sons of bitches grabbed me with strong hands and tied me tightly to a chair prepared in front of the machines. Their strength was so powerful that I couldn’t escape from their grip. The fact that I’d been beaten so much was also a reason I couldn’t resist properly.
“Still, this is good for you.”
They secured the chair I was tied to on the floor so it wouldn’t easily fall over. The violence they inflicted on me was so severe that there was a high possibility of falling to the floor.
But if that happened, there was a possibility of getting hurt more than necessary, so they properly secured the chair. Surprisingly, they thought the violence they committed was justified behavior for reformation. It was truly a shitty rationalization.
“After this lesson, we’ll decide on your treatment depending on your condition. We could just dispose of you, but be grateful we’re giving you a chance.”
I spat bloody saliva onto the floor with a ptui. That they called all of this a chance was truly detestable.
The reason they were doing this must be because of my ransom. I’m a loser, but that doesn’t mean the value of my bloodline has dropped. I was still a Mar of Chatis Kingdom.
On one hand, I thought it strange that my half-siblings and the Sultana would choose to sell me alive rather than kill me. They’d think they could control it, but the hatred they held exceeded imagination.
Ah, perhaps this school was overstepping its authority. Looking at the greed dwelling in the son of a bitch’s eyes…… that thought seemed right.
The professor’s face grinning with white teeth bared could be seen as benevolent at a glance, but his neatly arranged teeth were like a shark’s. Meaning he only looked ferocious.
But it wasn’t time to be scared of that. My vision, which had been hazy and blurry, became clear as rage surged at the professor’s words.
“Treat…… ment……?”
I tried to speak clearly, but speaking wasn’t easy, perhaps because I’d bitten my tongue. The professor obediently answered me who was answering docilely. Seeing the satisfaction dwelling in him, he might have thought I was submitting.
“That’s right. If you rise to C-rank, you’ll at least be able to leave this basement. After that, it’s up to you. If you quietly take classes, become reformed, and become what Connubium wants, you’ll receive better treatment.”
I hated every single person in this school who looked like leashed beasts with their teeth pulled out. Miserable lot without a shred of thought to fight and overcome. Do you think I’ll become like that?!
Rage surged again as if a thousand fires were rising. My heart was bursting with the desire to shout loudly, but I barely endured by chewing the inside of my mouth. To escape from this miserable state, I had to endure. Until the rage was honed and polished to become a solid sword.
To do that, I had to escape from here. Being able to suppress my rage overnight was because of that man’s words.
‘Find the Holy Grail, loser.’
Hope was sometimes more effective than any medicine. It seemed like I’d learned the identity of the Holy Grail he mentioned by desperately and recklessly escaping.
I was lucky. Nothing was certain, but for the future, I lowered my body. Watching me like that, the son of a bitch let out a low laugh. I wanted to immediately rise from my seat and blow away that jaw.
He gave orders to the others in a domineering voice.
“Begin the final reformation.”
