How much time had passed?
With no windows, there was no way to tell whether it was day or night.
I couldn't tell if the drowsiness crashing over me was simply my body's internal clock demanding sleep, or the result of the half-healed wound on the back of my head. Still, I suspected it was night.
“Kehhee…….”
My reasoning was the Ghoul with the insect mask—the one called the foreman or something—who was currently fast asleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling.
His feet were embedded deep in the ceiling, his arms left to dangle limply under the pull of gravity, and saliva leaked from his mouth, trailing over his cheeks, forehead, and hair before dripping to the floor.
The drool pooled on the ground in steady drops.
If that bastard slept on a regular schedule, then it had to be night.
Since Minami had kidnapped me after 9 a.m., roughly twelve hours had likely passed.
For the record, the person who had actually kidnapped me wasn't here.
After rambling on about disassembling my body to create a work of art, he had shouted, “The inspiration won’t stop~!” and stormed out of the room. He hadn't returned since.
“Kekekek! Keheee~….”
The foreman's snoring was even more bizarre than the strange laughing sounds he made while awake. It was truly unsettling.
I barely managed to suppress a grimace.
The sound was grating, but the bastard was in a deep sleep, and there were no other eyes watching me.
This was the perfect opportunity to move.
Carefully, making as little noise as possible, I tugged at the chains and examined the shackles binding my wrists.
They were a murky, dark color, shaped like three pairs of police handcuffs stacked together. Upon closer inspection, I realized the source of that murky hue.
It was blood.
The shackles had been coated in so many layers of blood that the original metal was completely obscured. The design of the shackles explained why.
They were shaped like overlapping U-shaped iron horseshoes.
The overlapping sections were ridged, creating a structure that was impossible to remove once locked.
The only way to escape these would be to completely tear one's own wrist off.
The moment I realized these shackles were stained with the accumulated deaths of countless victims, they felt significantly heavier.
Now then, what do I do?
Unlocking these was impossible; there wasn't even a keyhole. Therefore, I shifted my focus from the shackles to the iron stakes embedded in the wall.
Though the room was dark, feeling around revealed that the walls were riddled with cracks. This was clearly a very old building.
Stretching my arms wide, I felt the areas where the iron stakes were driven into the concrete.
I could feel crumbs of concrete flaking off beneath my fingertips.
I didn't know how many humans had been imprisoned here as sacrifices. But I doubted they had simply given up and waited for death.
They must have struggled to survive. The monsters had left them to it, knowing their efforts were futile. In fact, they probably enjoyed watching the struggle.
However, it hadn't been entirely pointless.
Death wasn't the only thing that had accumulated in this room. The desperate struggle for life left behind by the victims who had trembled and died here had now become a sliver of hope for me.
The iron stake connected to my right shackle moved—only slightly, but it moved.
I couldn't have done this on my own. Because previous victims had yanked at the shackles so violently, the stake's anchor had loosened.
I offered a silent prayer for the previous victims and wound the chain around my hand.
Once the chain was secure and the back of my hand was pressed against the stake, I pulled upward with all my might.
It twitched, but refused to budge. I flicked my gaze up to check on the foreman.
“Kehhehehehe!! Smack, smack…….”
Whatever tasty thing he was eating in his dreams—likely human—he continued to smack his lips in his sleep. He showed no sign of waking. Seeing my opening, I yanked the chain repeatedly.
It seemed useless at first, but with every pull, more debris fell to the floor. The stake began to wobble noticeably and was clearly protruding further than before.
I judged that one more strong effort might pull it free when—
Step. Step.
“……Tch!”
I clicked my tongue. Of all the times, I could hear footsteps approaching from outside the door.
It wasn't just one person. There were at least two or three.
“Man~ yesterday's company dinner was great, wasn't it, chief?”
“That second round at the karaoke bar—the woman's flesh we had there was exactly to my taste. Can't we find more like that?”
“Don’t worry, section chief. I’ll source some soon and have it ready for the next dinner.”
“Hoho! I'll look forward to that. Will you be joining us, manager?”
“Hmm. I gorged myself last time, so I'm fine. More importantly, about that karaoke bar…….”
……Despite the horrific subject matter, the conversation sounded exactly like something ordinary office workers would say.
Was it true they actually ran this place like a company? I had assumed it was just a delusional roleplay.
I quickly returned the chain to its original position and sat still. The door rattled open, and three men walked in.
A short, slight man; a tall man with a horse-like face; and a plump old man with a magnificent beard that reminded me of a chicken shop mascot.
“This is the new ‘material’ we brought in.”
The slight man pointed at me as soon as he entered, introducing me as if I were a piece of merchandise.
The plump old man stroked his mustache and let out a small hum.
“Hmm. The body looks sturdy enough, and he's clearly trained, but there's nothing particularly satisfying about him. Isn't he a bit too plain?”
“Manager, isn't it our reward to take such a plain existence and turn it into something that leaves a lasting impression on people's hearts?”
The horse-faced man rubbed his hands together flatteringly.
The urge to snap, "What the hell have you added to my plainness, you bastards?" rose to the tip of my tongue, but I forced it down. I was the captive, and they held the power of life and death. Provoking them now would be reckless.
So these are the ‘superiors’ Minami mentioned……
I had expected as much given their obsession with "art," but they were truly insane.
Whenever I felt their gaze on me as prey, the old scar Eto had left flared with pain, alerting me instantly.
I didn't know why this happened, but perhaps my subconscious was detecting a nuance in their gaze that my conscious mind couldn't, sending me a warning.
Yet, with these men, the predatory instinct was weak.
They were certainly looking at me and intended to harm me, but it wasn't for the purpose of eating. It wasn't for survival.
It was pure amusement. A senseless act of pleasure-killing packaged as a noble mission.
Three pairs of eyes wondering how to disassemble and reassemble me to make me "more beautiful." In a way, they were far worse than other Ghouls.
“Hmm, we can take our time thinking it over. By the way, is the foreman still asleep? He said he was coming with Minami, so where is he?”
The old man, who seemed to be the manager, looked up at the sleeping foreman on the ceiling. As if waiting for the perfect cue, Minami’s voice rang out.
“Yeees~! The Minami everyone’s been waiting for has arrived~☆”
Beyond the open door, Minami appeared, practically sliding across the floor.
He held a thick stack of papers in one hand and a tray in the other.
On the tray were four mugs for the men. Steam curled from the liquid, carrying the fragrant aroma of coffee.
Minami danced between the three Ghouls, distributing the coffee he had prepared.
With a thud, he set the tray on the table and placed the stack of papers on top.
“Now, now, now~! Drink your coffee and listen up~. This Minami has completed a truly brilliant proposal~.”
“What? You finished it in less than a day after capturing the material?”
“Well, the moment I saw our Koma-kun, something just went
The air in the room, which had been suffocating under the pressure of the three men, became even more chaotic with Minami's arrival.
What was this? Was he the "mood-maker" every office supposedly has? Though the mood here was anything but good.
“You're awfully impatient. Just wait. This time, I'm not slapping together something half-baked like last time; I'm constructing a proper plan. We'll have a meeting then. First, let's identify the subject. Hey, you. What's your name?”
The slight man, the section chief, approached while sipping his coffee and nudged me with the tip of his shoe.
Between his behavior and the condescending look in his eyes, being kidnapped was bad enough, but this was genuinely insulting.
However, I couldn't afford to bicker with them.
These people were clearly organized by rank: staff, section chief, manager, department head, and foreman.
By rank, the foreman was the highest, but he was still asleep and incoherent.
Honestly, how did a guy who only says “Kehhehe” become a foreman? What exactly are their criteria for promotion?
Setting the foreman aside, I looked at the old manager, the second-highest in rank, and spoke.
“Excuse me, but could you just send me home? Based on what you just said, wouldn't turning someone as plain as me into a work of art be an insult to art itself?”
“Hmm, I agree with you on that point, but one of our mottos is ‘Recycle any trash into a work of art.’ Besides, we can't simply release someone who knows about us.”
“I'm sure you've heard this a lot, but I absolutely won't say a word. I'm not just saying it. If you want, I'll even— AGH!!”
A scream tore from my throat. Searing heat poured over the crown of my head and ran down to my chin. It was so hot I felt as if my scalp were being peeled away.
The liquid reached my lips. I licked it. Bitter. Coffee.
“Do you not know your place, trash? You are here as ‘material.’ Material doesn't have the right to speak its mind.”
It was the section chief.
He had poured freshly brewed, boiling coffee over my head.
His action screamed: Who do you think you are, trying to ignore me?
“Section chief~ you shouldn't damage the precious material, should you?”
“Hmph. Mind your own business. As long as the skeletal structure is intact, it's not a problem. Or what? Are you defending him because you're both human?”
“Not at all~ Besides, I told you I want to be treated as a Ghoul~.”
Minami's airheaded voice blended with the section chief's harsh tone.
Material, huh…… I thought the bottom of human dignity was slavery, but apparently, there was a level even lower than that.
I lowered my head and spoke.
“……At least let me use a phone.”
An empty mug smashed against my head and shattered. The section chief again.
“I told you not to babble, didn't I?”
“Please. I have to contact my daughter immediately…….”
“You little—!”
My jaw was knocked sideways. He had likely held back his strength for a human, but it was more than enough to snap the thread of my consciousness.
Even as my vision blurred, I ground my teeth.
I had to contact Eto. By now, she would have noticed something was wrong at home.
The most dangerous thing right now wasn't resisting these monsters. It was leaving that child alone.
If this keeps up…… you idiots have no idea how that kid is going to go berserk……!!
I wanted to scream it, but my mouth only gasped soundlessly. Then, the world went black.
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