Chapter 390: The Worst Torture (3)
"Let's resolve it through dialogue."
Vikir said. Everyone's mouths dropped open at those words.
Even the guards who were building the siege, and even Sakkuth, who was leading the hostage situation, and Kirko, who was being held hostage.
....
Silence. Silence settled over the labour camp where the hostage situation had just taken place.
Sakkuth was the first to speak.
"What the hell. You're that idiot, right? Are you insane?"
Vikir was an old warrior who had lived through the Age of Destruction, and he knew better than to hide his mana and presence.
Even Hugo, patriarch of Baskerville Family, hadn't noticed.
Not surprisingly, Sakkuth did not recognise Garm's identity.
Vikir shrugged at Garm appearance.
"I have a clean & sober mind."
"No, you weren't dead to me in the first place...."
"I almost was, once."
When a person comes out of a near-death experience, there is often a great deal of internal growth.
Sakkuth narrowed his eyes at Garm atsmophere, who had changed into a different person.
"You still look the same, but it's like you've become a different person. Your eyes have become a little more useful."
"If you do, then release my motivation so we can continue working on the construction."
"Kurururu... Fuck you, kid. I'm glad you've changed, and you're trying to make up for it with some words."
Sakkuth snorted, as if he didn't need to talk to him.
But Garm didn't back down and continued to stand there.
Behind him, he heard some guards shouting.
"Hey, lowly guard, where do you think you're going!"
"Can you get back now! You're only increasing the number of hostages!"
"Tsk, tsk, you're going to die. You should know the subject."
As they said. Sakkuth cleared his throat and and pulled phlegm into his mouth.
...twees!
A foul-smelling spit of phlegm flew like a quack to Garm's face.
It was an attack that was sure to infect him with plague.
What?
Shhh.
With a simple flick of his head to the side, Garm dodged the attack.
Even though it was not possible for a low-ranking guard to react quickly.
"...!?"
Sakkuth's expression changed.
Seizing the opportunity, Garm spoke in a voice barely audible to the other guards.
"I've got something to talk about, don't you think?"
"Kurururu, how ridiculous."
Sakkuth laughed in disbelief.
"What the hell are you trying to talk about, you and me?"
It worked.
The words spoken by high-ranking guards are not to be trusted in the first place.
That was a fact that the hostage-taker knew best.
However, in the midst of all these high-ranking guards, a low-level guard who walked out alone with guts.
What kind of dialogue would he try to have with him?
Sakkuth was mildly curious about that.
However, the spontaneous curiosity disappeared as easily as it had arisen.
"Oh, forget it. There's no way this body is on the same level as yours, so how can we have a dialogue...."
"Queen."
"...!"
"It's about the one who sent you here."
But Sakkuth's expression quickly hardened.
The keyword had just scratched his sensitivities to the bone.
The reason for his rampage was that he had been abandoned by the Queen.
At this point, a terrifying malice radiated from his entire body.
It was the kind of killing intent that made you feel suffocated just by being next to it, and your whole body was weighed down.
"... You've got some balls, kid, you've suddenly got my attention."
Sakkuth was starting to show some enthusiasm for the conversation.
His eagerness was so intense that all the guards who were forming a siege line in the distance took half a step back.
But Garm remained nonchalant. The old Garm would never have dared to think such a thing.
Sakkuth held Kirko's neck tightly and spoke as if chewing it and spitting it out.
"So, you had a crush on this bitch, right? Okay, let's have a conversation that catches my interest. If it were fishing, I would break this bitch's neck, kill her, and eat all her internal organs...."
"Wait a minute. There's something I need to do before we can talk."
Far from being intimidated by Sakkuth's killing intent, Garm even raised his palm to cut off his words.
"This conversation contains a lot of important information. It is classified."
"What kind of top secret is this from you, who is only a low-ranking guard?"
"You'll see when you listen. My class is not the problem."
"Kurururu- You were so confident earlier. So what do you have to do before we talk?
The initiative in the conversation had shifted ever so slightly.
Garm spoke nonchalantly.
"Give Kirko over here."
"Are you insane? You come to the guy who's taking hostages, giving up the hostage, and talk to him?"
"I'll let you keep the hostage."
"What the fuck are you talking about? Who's going to be the hostage instead of this bitch?"
"Me."
Garm was trying to get Sakkuth to let Kirko go instead of taking himself hostage.
"Either this or we can't talk."
"...Do you even realise what you're getting yourself into?"
"I do. I'm a weak, lowly guard. I'm making unreasonable demands on you, who's holding a hostage."
"I could take you hostage as well."
"Then we won't be able to talk. Too bad. I'm sure you'd love to hear it."
Sakkuth was becoming increasingly confused by Garm's nonchalant demeanour as he spoke without changing his face.
"Seriously, what the hell kind of balls do you have?"
"You see, I've never been the gutsy type. I don't even have the guts to bluff with my life."
"...."
"For someone like me to speak so confidently, it makes you wonder what I believe in, doesn't it?"
Garm continued.
And Sakkuth seemed to agree with him on some level.
But then.
"Very well. Then show me proof that you are worthy of being my hostage before we exchange."
"Does being a hostage require proof?"
"Of course."
He grabbed the shivering Kirko by the throat and lifted her up.
"This woman is not begging for her life, even though she is about to be cut to pieces. She has courage, and she has balls."
"...."
"But you're a rotten dog, a piece of shit, and the moment you're taken hostage by me, you're going to shit yourself and have a heart attack, and that makes you worthless as a hostage."
"You're being unreasonable."
"Neither are you."
"Then how do you expect me to prove it?"
Garm asked, and Sakkuth tilted his head to the side.
He turned to the nearest guard, a Major, and extended his hand.
"Hey, you. Give me a cigarette."
"...?"
The Major happened to have a cigarette in his mouth.
He pulled it out of his pocket and tossed it to Sakkuth.
huug-
Sakkuth took the cigarette in his mouth and took a long drag.
At the same time, the red blood from his torn mouth and lips soaked into the cigarette.
Blood that smelled disgusting and fishy, and a cigarette soaked in it.
Sakkuth took the cigarette from his mouth and held it out to Garm.
"Smoke this, and I will recognise your guts."
At that, all the guards fell silent.
Even Kirko narrowed her eyes in thought.
'...There's no way he's putting that in his mouth.'
The blood was a Class 1 hazardous material.
A single drop on the ground is a terrible poison that requires a radius of tens of metres to be disinfected with alcohol, fire, and gunpowder.
Who in their right mind would touch a cigarette that could infect someone with a terrible plague?
Let alone put it in his mouth.
Lt. Colonel Bastille, at the head of the siege, gritted his teeth.
'For a lowly guard, he was good at taking time, but...Is this where it ends?'
He had planned to advance his men in the rear, little by little, extremely slowly, and attack Sakkuth from behind.
But there wasn't enough time for that.
Sakkuth hadn't let his guard down in the slightest.
...Then.
Something happened that shocked everyone.
Shhh.
Garm casually accepted the cigarette offered to him.
Without warning, he popped the cigarette into his mouth.
"Fire."
And even calmly asking for a fire.
Sakkuth stood still, somewhat dazed.
He didn't think he'd actually light it.
But Garm shook his head nonchalantly.
"You'll have to provide fire."
At that, he turned his head toward the guards with a blank expression on his face.
And then.
cheog-
A guard of the rank of Major hurriedly rummaged through his chest and threw a match into Sakkuth hands.
Crickss- Swoosh!
Unable to hide his disbelief, Sakkuth struck the match and lit the cigarette in Garm's mouth.
The sight of a giant poisonous snake, imprisoned on the Level 8, bending down to light a cigarette for a junior guard less than half his height was a strange one.
Huuuw.
Taking a deep drag on the cigarette, Garm immediately blew out a long stream of smoke.
"...."
While everyone watching was with their mouths open with blank expressions.
"How did you know?"
Sakkuth asked with a straight face.
"That I don't actually have plague poison in my blood."
It was a shocking revelation.
All the guards watching realised that they had been deceived for the past two years.
In fact, there was no plague in Sakkuth body.
He had mimicked the plague by creating a skin disease that was only apparently serious, using powders of several types of fungi and mushrooms readily available in the Nouvelle Vague, as well as the antidotes and antiseptics injected and applied by doctors, and he had used that to his advantage.
Being a native of Leviathan, an extremely poisonous place, and the founder of the plague, the "Red Death," supported his bluff.
But it was all just a bluff with a twist.
The question then becomes how Garm, a lowly guard, could have known this beforehand.
"That guy also had something to believe in!"
"But how did he know it was a bluff? The doctors couldn't figure it out."
"Really? Is there any way to tell?"
Sakkuth, who holding Kirko by the throat, and all the other guards took note of how Garm had seen through Sakkuth's bluff.
...and.
Garm opened his mouth and answered everyone's question in a slow and dry tone.
"I didn't know?"
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