A Death Row Convict Teaches at a School of Magic

You are warned of gore in this chapter

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When the door was opened, there was a firm texture exerted on Felt’s temple.

Moving her line of sight laterally, she was confronted by Kanaki, whose eyes had grown piercingly acute as he turned his muzzle indifferently toward her.

“―Now, are you shocked?”

Immediately afterward, though, a mirthless smile was displayed and the gun was withdrawn as well.

“When I met with Ms. Sasha yesterday, the person who was over there―I believe it was the S-rated ‘Gecko’. Like I just did to you, that woman leveled a gun at me and fired indiscriminately at me!! Jesus, can you imagine how much pain I must have suffered―”

Right before Felt made a move to deploy the Serpentine Spear, it came to her awareness that Kanaki’s muzzle was directed toward her once more.

“Oh, it is not my desire to be violent with you, so please don’t be rough with me either. I am here today to have a discussion with you.”

“…Discussion?”

“For now, let’s move to the rear of the place. Ms. Sasha is likewise present there.”

Having said that, Kanaki set off walking but promptly halted as if a recollection of some sort surfaced in his mind.

“Oh, that’s right. Please leave the stones that inhibit magical power behind. Taking it beyond this point could be fatal.”

“…?”

“Well, this time I can assure you that there is indeed no way that you will be harmed unless it’s in self-defense.”

“…If I refuse?”

“It’s fine with me, but Sasha will be killed.”

“…I get it.”

Once those words left her mouth, Felt removed all the stones she had hidden in her clothes and dumped them on the floor.

“Oh, that’s certainly a waste of stones―”

The instant Kanaki’s gaze darted downward momentarily, her Serpentine Spear was unleashed, causing the blade to extend before wrapping itself around Kanaki’s body like a serpent, tightening its grip.

To Kanaki’s incredulous countenance, Felt remained on her toes and kept her gaze glued to him. This man has already aroused Felt’s wariness more than anyone else she has encountered so far.

“Where’s Sasha?”

“What a shock. I never dreamed that I would fall for it twice.”

“Answer the question!”

Kanaki regarded Felt coldly as Felt tightened her grip even further.

At the faintest hint of uncomfortability in Felt, Kanaki spoke up.

“Ms. Felt, why don’t you stay cool for the time being?”

“!?”

Kanaki’s body exploded into fragments in a matter of seconds.

She thought it was self-destruction, but was mistaken in her assumption

That was when she became aware that the Kanaki she was facing was actually a Slime.

“For someone of your prominence to be caught twice in this kind of mischief is out of character.”

The Slime’s body suddenly sprouted a human lip, which spoke in Kanaki’s voice.

Feeling displeasure, as if she had been made a fool of, Felt’s face distorted.

“Well, let’s chat in the back at any rate. Ah, please don’t bring the stones, really. What I mentioned earlier rings true.”

After saying that, the Slimes, clustered into one, crawled to the back of the room, passed through the gap in the door, and disappeared into the inner room.

Felt, after considerable hesitation, decided against picking up the stones and instead chose to open the inner room’s iron door.

“This is…”

A sour-smelling odor assailed her nostrils as soon as she stepped in.

Frowning at it, she scanned the room.

Only the center of the room, which had scarcely any lighting other than a spotlight illumination, was lighted, and the spectacle there was horrendous to behold.

“―You have come.”

Within the spotlight, two figures were present. One was Kanaki. With a smile inducing a sense of reassurance, he still exuded the same mysterious charm as when meeting him at the coffee shop the other day. Yet, that was precisely why even Felt, who has experienced life in the underworld for a long time, was appalled at the sight of Sasha “hanging” in the back there.

Now gagged, Sasha was stark naked.

Bound by ropes and hung by one leg at a time, Sasha’s undeveloped mid-teenage body was unabashedly on display.

However, at that moment, Felt could only focus on one spot on Sasha’s body.

ㅤ

ㅤ

Sasha was torn asunder, roughly from her crotch to just below her navel.

ㅤ

ㅤ

“Nghhhhh! Nghhhhh!”

The weeping Sasha was dripping upside down from the buildup of tears on her eyelids. Perhaps her heart was not yet thoroughly shattered, for she cast her strong-willed eyes toward Felt.

“How is it? The torture you subjected Hansa to was rather spectacular, but this one of mine is pure art, isn’t it?”

What in the world was this man on about?

Kanaki was all smiles, yet wearing an air of accomplishment in his speech. His eyes shifted to the nearby table and the blood-spattered saw.

“I wonder if there is such a thing as death by sawing in this world? Literally, it is a method of execution in which the body is torn apart with a saw, but this time I have arranged it. Sawing is conventionally carried out by decapitating the head, but as you can see, I split the body in half from top to bottom. Of course, the neck would have been in a tremendous deal of agony, but to be hung upside down and have the legs ripped open, I suppose that would be more jarring in this regard.”

Kanaki lifted the saw and slowly placed it over Sasha’s crotch.

“Hu, hugoo!”

“S-Stop―”

Without pausing, Kanaki jerked the saw to the hilt.

The sound reached Felt, as the fibers of the meat were being ripped apart.

“Bugoooooo!!”

An unprecedented screech emanated from Sasha’s mouth.

Her eyes widened until they were about to burst open, and that alone caused a profusion of perspiration to break out all over her body.

“Yeah, looks like we can still keep going.”

Kanaki then continued sawing.

A series of obnoxious tearing noises followed the cadence of the sawing.

“Bugogoo! Gaaaaaaaah!!”

That was not a scream a human being should emit.

“!”

Not even Felt could face the scene directly. Involuntarily tearing her eyes away from Sasha, she noticed a large mirror on the wall behind Felt’s back. And there, reflected in the mirror, was Sasha’s face, with the saw up to her navel, watching it with bloodshot eyes. That sent Felt a chill down her spine.

―Kanaki was showing Sasha herself, in that mirror, her own body being dismembered as if to heighten more despair.

The shrieks that had chilled her to the core faded.

“Phew, I have to admit, it’s hard to use a saw to chop when dealing with a human being.”

Those were the words of someone who was evidently accustomed to cutting people.

“Well, I bet that causes further pain… Oh, you are foaming. I have to remove it before it suffocates you.”

Felt was incapable to intervene even as Kanaki turned his back on her to remove the gag.

Her arms and legs lacked all power. The tremors in her body had been persistent since earlier.

For the first time, Felt was confronted with the fact that, up until that point in her life, she had never encountered veritable “evil.”

“…Yeah, she is fully conscious. The drug I administered to her beforehand seems to be kicking in. There appears to be no risk of blood loss or shock-related mortality since ‘Circle Healing’ is proceeding without a hitch.”

Straining her eyes, the wounds on Sasha showed minimal but incremental movement as if they were being closed up.

On the floor where Sasha was hung was a geometric pattern, and in the center of it was a magic crystal stone. That was likely to ensure that Sasha would not die, but it would be a sign that Sasha would be in constant suffering as well.

“―Well, I was just playing with her until you came along, Ms. Felt, but my true purpose is something else. I called you here today because I want you to work for me.”

“…What do you mean?”

Felt herself realized that the end of her sentence was wavering.

“I meant exactly what I said. I thought about it after talking to you the other day. Even if I kill you guys now, there will still be nobody in the city who is influential wanted criminals. Once you guys are out of the picture, there will be new tricky characters coming to wreak havoc on the city, and if that trend plays a continuous course, it is inevitable that the Garrisoned Corps and Security Force of other cities will take notice of here.”

Kanaki raised his index finger at Felt.

“That’s where you guys come in. I want you guys to replace Matthias as the city’s wanted criminal and the city’s control freak. Naturally, your work can continue as before. ―Oh, and please don’t kill any more merchants, okay? But when the wanted criminals who pose a threat to this city arrive, I want you to take them out.”

It took a great effort on Felt’s part to reply.

“…Why don’t you do that?”

“I have, of course, thought about that. However, that would draw a lot of attention to me, wouldn’t it? Peace and tranquility are the aspects I prefer to live in. Even I have a teaching job.”

“Peaceful life?”

Felt genuinely did not grasp the meaning of that word.

“Right. That is the universal dream of all human beings, no matter where they live in the world.”

If so, what was the man standing in front of her?

Even Felt was aware that she was not a decent human being, but she would certainly not be in the same category as this man. He was a monster. A monster masquerading as a human being, possessing rationality.

Felt was unable of responding and fell silent, and what did Kanaki think about that?

“…That’s right. Speaking of which, I just came up with a one-liner I want to present to you when you come over, Ms. Felt. Surely, you would laugh at it―”

At the sight of the trick, Felt puked for the first time in more than a decade and then decided to comply with Kanaki’s request.