The Porter Has No Interest in the Hero’s Party

Even in pain, the sun sets and calls forth a new day. Keiberess felt an emotion similar to fear toward the two women who entered with smiling faces.

“Wh-what. Aren’t you going to do that burning torture today?”

The two hadn’t brought the furnace today. The hot heat and the smell of burning flesh still seemed to stimulate her nostrils, so Keiberess sniffed while speaking.

Ashuria shook her head. Lena was giving Ashuria a look as if to say ‘see’. Seeing her arrogant gaze, Ashuria smiled and looked down at Keiberess, saying:

“Yesterday, Lena said that when it comes to this kind of torture, she seemed to have given better pain.”

Keiberess blinked, not knowing how to respond to those words. Ashuria didn’t seem to expect an answer from her either. She rolled up her sleeves without taking out any torture instruments. Then, after rolling up Keiberess’s shirt that had turned to rags, she stroked her fair arm with her fingers and said:

“But I couldn’t agree with Lena’s words. Having worked as a heretic inquisitor and lived a life more devoted to love than anyone else, how could I be less skilled than Lena?”

Keiberess desperately began to rack her brain about what answer would keep her alive here. It seemed like the two women had started an inappropriate race over her. Ashuria grabbed Keiberess’s arm.

“Ah, aah…!”

Keiberess screamed like a lost child and trembled. Even the most outstanding general would inevitably feel fear in the face of meaningless and irrational violence. Ashuria, seeing the fear in her eyes, said to Lena:

“Lena. I haven’t done anything yet, but she’s already screaming in fear like this. Haven’t I won the bet?”

“Hey, it’s because I worked hard to tame her yesterday. That’s why. It’ll be different once you actually start?”

As Lena retorted with a smile, Ashuria nodded with an even brighter expression.

“That’s a statement that ignites a competitive spirit. I’ll fall for your provocation.”

Between the two, Keiberess wanted to cry. Had she ever experienced such harsh conditions while living in the demon world? Training to endure torture. Training to survive in extreme situations. All training enemies had a purpose. There was a purpose to chase me to kill me, and a purpose to extract some information from me.

But these lunatics were torturing to bet on who could cause more pain.

She couldn’t escape from here. Even if she revealed confidential information, these women wouldn’t let her go.

After facing reality, cold sweat trickled down.

“L-look… Now… Augh!”

Before Keiberess could open her mouth, Ashuria’s hand tightly gripped her arm. Like wringing a rag, she twisted her flesh back and forth, gradually applying more force.

“Ah…! Wh-what are you…!”

“Have you ever seen the scene of skinning an animal?”

Even as she spoke, strength entered Ashuria’s arms. Solid muscles and tendons rose in the arms of the nun who had devoted her life to torture and evangelism. Lena whistled, slightly surprised by the fierce muscles revealed when she applied force, and Keiberess began to scream, unable to endure the pain.

“Aaah! Aaaaaaah! M-my arm will be torn off! Aaaaaaah!”

“An animal’s skin sticks to the muscles and fat inside, so you need to remove those connection points with a knife. It’s like inserting a sword between envelopes to read a letter stuck with glue.”

“Kkeureuk…! Kkeuk…!”

“Lena.”

Ashuria turned her head. The beads of sweat forming indicated she was feeling a sense of fulfillment now. Lena nodded, taking out a letter from the floor.

“What’s up?”

“I’ll show you how to skin by hand.”

Ashuria smiled. As she twisted the arm once more, blood droplets splattered and Keiberess screamed.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Knock knock knock

Today, too, I knocked on the iron door. The two women, who had been in a state of torture immersion, noticed my presence and stopped moving. The iron door opened, and the two showed me a very energetic smile. Ashuria was wiping blood that had splattered on her hands and face, and Lena had a clean face.

Lena said:

“Mister. Then, work hard.”

I nodded to her and then moved my foot into the torture room.

“Euh…! Euheueuk…! Eu…!”

There was Keiberess. It was impossible to tell what had been done to her, but her body was intact with only blood bright red on her limbs. The blood was so heavily stained, as if she were wearing rubber gloves, that I couldn’t even gauge what had been done.

Keiberess trembled with her eyes fixed on the air, and when I brought a wet towel, she convulsed as if electrocuted.

“Hiaaaak! Aaak! Eu…! Eueu…!”

After trembling several times, only after I had wiped her arms clean, did she realize I wasn’t harming her and looked at me.

“Heuu…! Eu…! I-it’s you… M-mock me if you want… Say I’m a weak woman who writhes after just a few tortures… B-but do you think I’ll… give in?”

I don’t answer. But I don’t despise or attack her either. Although it may seem businesslike, the act of wiping her body must be done carefully and gently. This leisurely comfort that comes after the piercing pain relaxes her mind and makes a strange affection rise.

“…I’ve seen you on the wall. You seemed to fight quite well. Were you a warrior?”

Then she forgets her intention and brings up trivial stories, and my existence itself gradually grows bigger in her heart.

“Calluses are embedded in your hands too. Why are you wiping my body here?”

But not now. If I continue the conversation now, I would be nothing more than her emotional trash can. Keiberess needed to collapse more. She needed to realize that there was no one to lean on except herself and that every place in this fortress except me was tormenting her.

At the silent non-answer, she felt anxiety and broke out in a cold sweat.

Looking at me restlessly, and the moment I left, she left one word.

“Hey…!”

Days passed like that.

Keiberess remained in the room, looking more and more devastated and broken. After I wiped her body, she was left alone to endure solitude in the dark room, and every morning, Lena and Ashuria opened the door and entered to start torture again.

Lena seemed to be gradually getting tired of the torture, but Ashuria, inflamed by the bet that Lena had jokingly brought up, was enjoying it like a sport, coming up with new torture methods every day.

And after the terrible time passes, I knock on the iron door again.

“What, it’s over already?”

“You came a bit early today. Regrettably, I’ll have to wrap it up here.”

Even knocking on the iron door required delicacy. I deliberately came a little earlier than the timing when the torture would end, forcibly ending the torture or interrupting the two’s enjoyment, showing her the fact that I was a figure on equal footing with the two.

On one hand, making her recognize me as a savior or an equivalent being who silently works for Keiberess amid harsh abuse, and on the other hand, using the two who inflict torture to instill the fact that she is suffering because of Daemon.

Her favorability towards Daemon continues to plummet, and her favorability towards me is lifted. And the fact that I can talk to her in this place and am a warm presence to her is continuously emphasized.

Naturally.

As if not intentional.

And as time passes like that, eventually, both demons and humans collapse and show cracks.

For instance, like this. She holds me back with a pitiful voice and pleads as I try to leave after wiping her body as usual.

“H-hey…! Stop…!”

Looking back, Keiberess was looking at me with pitiful eyes. She was looking at me with a desperate expression, and tears were welling up in her eyes.

“D-don’t go… D-don’t leave me alone…”

Pain and solitude. And fear.

No matter how great a being is, they cannot overcome emotions.

I silently closed the door again and sat in the room.

The power of love is this great.

Keiberess opened her mouth looking at me.

“S-say anything…”

I closed my eyes. From now on, I would have to tell very sweet stories. Seducing a demon felt like seducing a beast, making it impossible to immerse myself. I began to hypnotize myself.

In a way, Keiberess could be considered a widow. Her husband, Daemon, was soon to die. Since Daemon’s death was predetermined, Keiberess was a prospective widow. As a messenger of love and a practitioner of philanthropy, I might have a duty to roll around with even a demon widow without discrimination.

When circumstances are similar, the direction of approach tends to be similar too. It was just about becoming a broad-minded man who embraces even the widow of an enemy country.

“I was from the Empire.”

Keiberess is a widow.

A widow with very large breasts and seductive charm.