Chapter 341 What Has To Be Done
[STATUS WINDOW]
- Name: Esme
- Race: Half-Elf (Human and Elf)
- Class: Elementalist (B-Tier)
- Level: 15 (98.14% EXP)
- Life Force: 100/100 (+100)
- Mana Level: 200/200 (+200)
- Combat Ability: 3 (+3)
- Stat Points: 140
- Skills (Exclusive): [Absolute Appraisal]
- Skills (Non-Exclusive): [Absolute Magic Mastery]. [Absolute Magic Application]. [Grand Mana Recovery]. [Absolute Elemental Control]
- Alignment: Chaotic Good
[Additional Information]
A genius, even by Elven Standards… with a special heritage and connection to the World.
She is currently lost and immensely bereaved.
… Help her.
[End Of Information]
'A-amazing!'
Rey's eyes widened as he witnessed the drastic change in Esme's Status Window. Her Skills had grown so much, and she managed to rise 14 Levels beyond her previous point.
Of course, he had to address the most probable cause for all of it.
'Looking at everything that's going on here, I can guess what happened…' Rey's thoughts trailed as he took his eyes off Esme for a moment.
He settled his gaze on everything else—the ugly tapestry of lust and death.
'She must have been traumatized by this breeding going on. If I had to guess, her friends must be among the people…'
Rey used [Absolute Appraisal], and he could see why she would have broken down.
'They're merely husks of their previous selves. They could as well be dead.'
Not only were these teenagers—not even adults—under several Negative Status Conditions, but their [Additional Information] explicitly told Rey that there was no hope for them.
It was literally over.
'They've gone past the point of return.'
Once he figured that out, Rey could easily deduce the reason why so much blood and gore decorated the room.
It was the same reason Esme suddenly had a much higher Level than before.
'She killed the caretakers and guards of these people, most likely.' His thoughts trailed.
'How many were they?' Rey wondered. 'Judging by what I'm seeing here, the total number should be about two hundred? Maybe more…'
It was hard to tell since the bodies of Esme's victims had become nothing but shredded pulps that could hardly be called flesh.
'She really killed all those people, huh?'
As for the cause of death for his Elemental Summons, Rey simply had to assume that Esme did it somehow thanks to her Skills.
'She's incredible!' His thoughts echoed, despite also feeling a strong sense of tragedy for her.
He had previously thought there was a possibility that Esme's friends were dead, but he always shrugged the thought aside for her sake.
Despite his own dreary thoughts, Rey never imagined this sort of outcome.
'But why? Why would Scylla do this?' He wondered.
Rey could think of a few plausible reasons. For example, Scylla could have intended on making the Slave Trade business self-sufficient, so she wanted them to bear children for her.
'No… that makes no sense!'
It would take too much time and resources to fully cater for the children until they reached a viable age for proper trade.
Besides, Scylla could always just get viable slaves by utilizing the aid of the Mercenary Gang, which was already under her control.
They could pillage towns and obtain the kind of slaves she wanted.
'If her plan this night succeeded, no one would be able to stop her. There's no way she would have done any of this for a self-sustaining enterprise.'
Rey continued to rack his head for an answer.
'Could it be for entertaining purposes? Are there sick bastards in this world who like to see things like this?'
This was another possibility.
It was a stretch to accuse Scylla or any other person of it, but considering the diminished commercial values of the breeding slaves in their current state, and the fact that it would be a loss to Scylla's enterprise to merely raise children for years until they were ripe for selling… Rey began to think this was the reason behind such a horrific sight.
'I just… can't comprehend it.'
There were at least three thousand innocent lives here.
Why would someone put them all in this place just for them to have constant sex until they ceased to function?
It was sick!
'Treating humans like animals…' Rey sighed as he took a few steps forward.
The closer he got, the more the incoherent words of the mind-
broken masses began to make more sense.
Rey could hear words being uttered.
"K-kill me…"
"I… I don't want to… anymore…"
"Kill me… please kill… m-me…"
Words like this wafted in the air, forcing Rey's legs to grow heavy the more footsteps he took.
Before he realized it, he stood behind Esme, whose gem-like light blue eyes were transfixed on him. Their eyes glowed in their respective hues.
Both were looking directly into the other's eyes.
"What will you do now?" Rey asked.
There were a million other questions he could have asked, as well as a couple other things he could have said.
But Rey didn't say any of those things.
He simply stared hard at her, as they both heard the pleas of death from the suffering ones who still had embers of their humanity before they would cease to function as people completely.
Under the sounds of these perverse noises, Rey asked that question.
He knelt behind Esme, allowing the blood to drench his dark attire. He placed his two hands on her naked shoulders, and he whispered words into her ears.
"I won't judge you for anything you choose to do. It is your choice to make."
'I can see rune markings embedded on all of them. Even if they somehow recover from the Aphrodisiac, they won't be able to stop their actions if they have been commanded to by the runes.'
It reminded Rey of the subordinates of Ogun who could not resist the compulsive effect of their runes.
'They could also be inflicted with the Curse that Rebal talked about, so if we manage to make them stop… they could die.'
There was no way of really knowing how prepared the enemy was.
'Rather than letting them die in such a wasteful fashion, it would be better if they could be turned into EXP…'
Rey paused his thoughts and recoiled in surprise.
He couldn't believe he could think in such a way about people who—at least, during a period—were functional human beings.
Innocent, functional people.
Yet, he wasn't hesitant at all to equate them to EXP?!
'[Dead Calm] is turned off, so why…?'
Before Rey could finish his thoughts, he heard Esme's voice respond to his question.
"I'll do what needs to be done."
She slowly rose to her feet, and Rey watched her, still kneeling in his position.
Her naked form was majestic, and as Rey looked at her from behind, he couldn't help but be blown away by her sheer beauty.
Esme turned to face the thousands of livestock that continued their monotonous activities.
"Thank you, Rey." She whispered.
And then—
~SWISH!~
—With the slight of one hand, she put them all out of their misery.
All three thousand bodies plopped to the ground in a lifeless fashion, their heads rolling all over the blood soaked ground as their convulsing bodies greeted the pool of blood that surged underneath them.
In that single moment, a grand decapitation was performed.
And Esme was the executor.
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[A/N]
Thanks for reading!
These last couple of chapters have been dark, honestly. I can feel myself slowly descending into the kind of author I once was.
But no… let us all endure together!