In the basement, a guy walked in with a bucket of water. It was clear who was the target of this bucket.
"You, stop!" Kirika shouted, but the guy ignored her as he immediately walked to Noel's cell and splashed him with that much water.
"Haaa!" Noel's voice instantly echoed in the basement. He coughed a few times as if he was still too shocked by the water.
"It seems that you have waken up now." The guy smirked.
Noel looked left and right as if he was confused with this place. At the same time, he tried to move his body but to no avail. After that, he released his Spiritual Energy but it dispersed the moment it tried to connect.
With those three facts, Noel suddenly looked at the guy who splashed him again. The middle-aged man had spiky white hair, but Noel's eyes focused on the guy's stomach.
Due to him lifting the bucket to drop the water, his shirt was tilted up, allowing Noel to find a tattoo of a skeleton head and two bright red dots as its eyes.
'Supreme Devil Organization? It's truly involved?' Noel thought.
However, the guy immediately kicked Noel in the stomach and said, "Demon Banner Army again. You are like pest!"
"Gah!" Noel coughed a few times as he was convulsing on the ground. He could hear Kirika's voice the whole time, trying to stop the man.
But the more she shouted, the bigger the smile of the middle-aged man. He started stomping Noel's body.
"Kh." Noel gritted his teeth, enduring the pain. He still acted confused as if he was unaware of his current condition.
"Heh, you're acting like a tough guy, huh. I like beating a tough guy like you!" The middle-aged man smirked.
"Who are you?" Noel tried to jump on him and hit him on the stomach with his head. However, the middle-aged man grabbed his head before that and kneed his stomach. "Gah!"
Noel dropped to the floor again and started gasping for air.
"This is enough for now. Don't worry. I'll play with you a bit more later." The middle-aged man snorted and walked away from the cell.
Noel glared at him in silence, seeing the man who took pleasure of that hatred. At the same time, Noel was confused because the man didn't do anything more.
If it were him, he would have at least break his bone. So, this was surprising for Noel.
"Noel. Noel!" Kirika kept calling him, worried about his condition.
Noel took a deep breath and leaned to the wall. "Yeah. What happened here? Do you mind explaining it?"
"Are you alright?"
Instead of answering her, Noel asked another question. 'Where is Lokhar? Shouldn't you two suppose to be together?"
"I am here." Lokhar answered weakly.
"You alright?" Noel obviously had known the answer since he was just pretending this whole time. But he couldn't really show it because the enemies might suspect it from their reactions. So, he had to play dumb.
"I'm still alright, I guess."
"You sounded weak. Did anything happen to your body?"
Lokhar sighed and said, "You should worry about yourself. How is your stomach?"
"I'm fine. I expected that guy to do it more brutally…"
"It was just the beginning. He's going to start beating you more violently from now on. Every few hours, he will beat you up to give you constant pain. And eventually, he'll start to use knife or break your bones."
"Are you sure you're alright? Has he broken your bones?"
"My left arm and right leg."
"How many days have you been here?"
"Six days."
"I see." Noel fell silent for a moment and asked, "How are you, Kirika?"
"I am fine. They haven't done anything to me yet."
"Yet?" Noel furrowed his eyebrows.
"Yes. There seems to be going an inspector coming to this place. They're going to send me to somewhere else and it's probably where my hell is about to begin."
"I see. Then, do you know the identity of the culprit? I mean, any information about this incident?"
"The brothel seems to be cooperating with the lord of the mansion. There's no information other than that currently."
"…" Noel fell silent while looking at the other cells. "Are the rest dead?"
"Possibly. Our body is stronger compared to the rest and due to the Spirit, we can still hold on for a bit longer. But if this continues, we'll die sooner or later."
"How about you, Lokhar? Do you know anything about this?"
"One man per day. It seems they're bringing one person everyday. I don't know what kind of people they're trying to bring though."
"I see. Then one last question, how did you two get caught?"
"The same as you."
"I see. So, you entered the brothel while Kirika tried to save you."
"Yeah."
"It seems that the enemies are a bit extraordinary this time. Even though I have never seen you two that much, I know that you two are excellent among our generation."
"The receptionist is a Spirit Wielder. And that guy from earlier was also a Spirit Wielder. I don't know about the rest of the enemies."
"Two Spirit Wielders, huh. Then, I'm assuming that this inspector guy is someone stronger than them? Or maybe more important. Either way, there must be a stronger person among them…" Noel narrowed his eyes.
"Yeah."
Noel let out a long sigh and said, "It seems that we have no way to go out."
"We have been hoping for reinforcement this whole time, but I guess, you're the reinforcement." Lokhar sighed in disappointment. "I'm afraid that Anna Stargaze is going to get involved in this."
"Haha. She's going to leave me right away if that happens." Noel laughed. His tone didn't carry a single hesitation as if he knew that would happen in this scenario. "So, now that you're disappointed in me, what are you going to do next?"
"I'm going to break out."
"Do you think you can do it?"
"No. But I'll at least die trying. I'm just worried about Kirika." Lokhar glanced at Kirika. He knew that her hell would far surpass him.
"I can at least kill myself by smashing my head to the wall." Kirika made a sad smile and said, "Still, I'm glad that at my last moment, you're here, Noel."
