Rise of the Eromancer

Chapter 281 Unnecessary Torture

"Wake up."

"Gkuhkh!?"

A loud snorting echoed throughout the entire dungeon as Rhys doused the former governess and high priestess Rheadan with several gallons of water. She was already awake, but Rhys just felt like slightly drowning him for some reason — of course, it also did not help that he was actually feeling the animosity from Aengela.

How could he not, when she was heavily breathing through his neck while staring at Rheadan?

And of course, for safety reasons, Rhys had her eyes completely covered.

"H…huh? Where—"

"Shut up."

And as soon as Rheadan opened her mouth, Rhys quickly slapped her on the cheek, completely slamming her face on the wall right next to her. Rheadan's sticky nose formed strings, the mucus creating a bridge between her snoot and the sandy wall.

She was about to open her mouth to speak again, but Rhys slapped her on the cheek before he could have the chance to even utter a single word.

"...Hero, perhaps you should let her talk first?" Malenia, who was outside the cell, could not help but flinch when Rhys's slapped echoed throughout the entire dungeon; her eyes, slightly straying away as she saw blood starting to spurt out from Rheadan's gasping mouth, "You have not even asked her questions yet."

"I will," Rhys breathed out; the tone of his voice, extremely cold and stoic, "And you should not be here for this, High Priestess."

"N…no," Malenia shook her head, "My mission is to see through the Hero's adventure, my scales will not shy away from what happens in the shadows."

"I am not asking for your sake, High Priestess — I am asking for mine," Rhys glanced at Malenia as he grabbed Rheadan by the mouth to prevent her from uttering any noise, "I'm not going to be comfortable knowing someone's watching me."

"Then… just treat it as if I am not here at all, Hero."

"...Alright," Rhys could really only let out a sigh as Malenia did not move away from the cell at all, "I guess I'm also used to doing this with an audience. Several things are going to happen here, Rheadan — and none of it you are going to enjoy."

"Wh…" And as Rhys let go of her mouth, Rheadan was finally able to raise her voice, "Why… why are you doing this!? Let me out of here this instant! By… by the order of the Governess, let me out!"

"You see, that's not going to happen," Rhys crouched down so Rheadan could hear him breathing, "The current Governess, although unwilling, agreed that you would be under our care now. They wanted to kill you for what you've done to the city, eating food that was supposed to be for half of them. Starving them, taking away their servants, turning everyone you didn't like into stone.

You should thank High Priestess Malenia for convincing them not to kill you."

"Is—then I surrender!" Rheadan forced out a chuckle as blood spurted from her mouth, "Just… just take me away from this city! I wish to mingle with them no longer!"

"That's not going to happen," Rhys sighed, "Because you see, you should also be cursing High Priestess Malenia, because she agreed that I would be the one getting the answers from you — and she also agreed with my methods."

"I—" Malenia was about to raise her hand, but just chose to be quiet as she saw Aengela glaring at her for some reason. She was saying something, but she could not understand what it was.

"What… what do you want to know!?" Rheadan screamed, "I will tell you everything! I—"

"That would have been nice. But you see… I don't trust you," Rhys let out a small sigh before just violently and forcefully putting his wooden fingers inside Rheadan's mouth; completely cracking some of her teeth as he did so, "You should bite on that, I don't want you accidentally biting your tongue."

"Wh—Kh!?"

A loud and screeching muffle escaped from Rheadan's sealed mouth as Rhys just suddenly plucked a handful of her scales. Rhys then removed his hand from Rheadan's mouth, but before she could even let out another scream, Rhys suddenly put all the scales he had just torn away into her mouth… practically slicing parts of her cheek as he did so.

And when Rheadan accidentally just slightly tried to close her mouth, the hard scales stuck through her broken and shattered teeth, inserting itself through her already bleeding gums; causing a surge of pain that literally crawled through Rheadan's entire fat body.

"I'd suggest you not to scream or even move your mouth," Rhys let out a small sigh as she saw tears starting to dampen the blindfold on Rheadan's face. He did not seem to care at all, however, as he plucked another one of her scales, causing the fats in her body to vibrate.

"Sshh… shhh…" Rhys then forcefully grabbed Rheadan's hand, not even needing to restrain her since she could not even move properly due to her weight.

She was completely helpless, and even though Malenia hated her and was seething about what she had done with the Shrine of Medusa, she could not help but just hold her breath and slightly look away as she heard her whimpers whispering through her ear. But of course, Malenia promised to herself to witness the Hero of Prophecy. And so, she looked again and made sure never to look away again…

…only to see Rhys using Rheadan's own scale to practically dig through in between her fingers. Perhaps, it would have already been brutal with just that, but Rhys even dipped the scale in sand; causing the granules to just pin themselves and shred the insides of her nails.

Was… all of this really necessary? — Malenia thought. Rheadan was ready to answer all of their answers before Rhys started the torture, but the Hero did not seem to care at all. Rheadan also looked like she wanted to say something, but couldn't do so due to the sharp scales inside her mouth.

Rhys plucked the nails in her hand one by one, and as slowly as possible; even tearing off the skin and flesh of her fingers; starting from the base of the nail and across the wrist. But finally, after what seemed like an entire hour but not really, Rhys was done with her hand.

Unfortunately, Rhys freed her other hand to do the same. Rheadan seemed to still have plenty of strength left, as expected of someone who seemed like she had enough carbohydrates in her body to last for years. She quickly moved her mutilated hand and pulled her blindfold off.

"!!!"

But as soon as she did so, Rhys lodged a scale straight through both of her eyes. And before she could even react to that, he completely broke her arm and folded it in half.

And without even a chance in his expression, Rhys proceeded to remove the nails in Rheadan's other hand.

Malenia truly thinks that all of this is unnecessary, he has not even asked a single question and just continued to torture Rheadan ceaselessly; not even letting her rest at all. Rhys told her that they did not have time, and yet Rhys seemed to be taking his sweet time to torture Rheadan — she deserved this, of course, but Malenia could not help but just gasp from the Hero of Prophecy's brutality.

But finally, after another hour, Rhys removed the scales inside Rheadan's mouth and asked her a question.

"The nymph inside the Shrine of Medusa," Rhys whispered right into her ear, "What did you do with her?"

"W—Gkh!?"

And perhaps as she was finally able to exclaim her pain; Rheadan's shriek almost seeped through the dungeon and the entire city as Rhys snapped one of her fingers even though she was about to talk.

"We… we sold her!" Rheadan's speech was a little disgruntled, but it was clear enough for Rhys to understand even as the blood and fragments of her teeth flew from her mouth, "We… we sold her, you demon! I… I would have told you that from the start!"

"Hm…"

"A… a group of hyssirs visited the city several sheddings ago," Rheadan gasped, "I… I haven't seen their kind look like that, so civilized before — they offered me gold, all sorts of treasure in exchange for the nymph."

"And you gave her away!?" Malenia raised her voice as soon as she heard that, "And where is all of your treasure now!? Gone, and you take away the people's privilege for even a good day's worth of food!"

"They did not give us much of a choice — if you were in my scales at that moment, you would have done the same!" Rheadan wheezed, "They… they were with a human, I know it. I remember it — how can I not…

…when he was also speaking our language?"

"What…?" Rhys could not help but blink a couple of times as he heard Rheadan's words,

"...What do you mean another human spoke to you?"