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!"

"!!!"

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?"