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Translator: penny
Chapter: 130
Chapter Title: Inophe's Hideout
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'Let me see... Inophe went into that building over there, right?'
I landed carefully in the courtyard that looked like Inophe's hideout and quickly scanned my surroundings. There were four buildings in total. Each one was massively sized. They seemed twice as big as the houses of the other soldiers.
'The smallest one looks like the bathroom and shower room.'
The place Inophe had entered was the bedroom. The largest building was probably the living room.
'Then what is this building?'
A well-off house in the commoners' residential area usually consisted of three buildings: bathroom, living room, and bedroom.
But this place had one more. And I could sense several presences coming from inside it.
'Better check it out just to be safe.'
I quietly pushed open the door to the building that was a little larger than the bathroom. And in that instant, I was at a complete loss for words.
A foul stench assaulted my nostrils. It was too vile to simply call it a stink. But the smell was nothing compared to the sight that met my eyes.
The place was, in a word, a barn.
The kind of structure used for raising livestock, whether chickens, pigs, or cows.
Long fences stretched left and right, with twenty spaces prepared for keeping animals. Inside each fence, humans wearing collars were crawling toward me on all fours the moment I opened the door.
"M-Master?"
There was no need to check who that "master" referred to. Eleven women, mistaking me for Inophe due to the light coming from outside, poked their heads out between the fences like cows and spoke.
"Why are you so late?"
"P-Please feed us. We're so hungry."
"..."
Ha...
This wasn't the first time I'd seen Earthlings captured and raised as livestock, but whenever I witnessed something like this, it made me furious at this world's setting.
Who the hell created such a goddamn world?
I quietly closed the door. Only then did they notice my shabby robe and realize I wasn't Inophe, tilting their heads.
Then, as if realizing something, they smiled brightly.
"Ah, a guest. Come this way. I'll suck you off."
"Please let me serve you."
In front of the emaciated women forcing smiles, I quietly pulled back my robe. The women tilted their heads again.
"Huh? You're not a woman?"
"Who...?"
Anxious eyes. The women, who had just been desperately smiling and trying to act sweet, now huddled in fear and retreated to the corners.
It wasn't because I was a man that they were afraid. It felt like they feared something else entirely.
I put on my most friendly face possible and said,
"You don't need to be so scared. I'm an Earthling just like you all."
"Ah?"
"I just know what's going on here... and if you need help, I'd like to assist."
Only then did the women glance at each other before slowly approaching and peering at me.
"...At first, we just wanted to survive."
They had somehow escaped the line for sacrificial offerings and worked diligently to save up for passage on a boat, but every day felt like hell, they said.
They weren't even thinking about moving to the next region; they were just trembling day by day, wondering if they could even stay alive.
"That's when that woman approached us."
-Come be my slave. Then I won't make you live like this.
-How long do you think you can hold out, honestly? Two of your comrades died today. Keep scraping by on theft, and you'll either get caught by the guards and killed, or become a snack for some monster cow. Don't do that—become my slave. Follow me, and you won't have to worry about dying; I'll feed you well every day.
"They say even rolling in dog shit is better than hell... "
What if she was a slave owner? As long as they could live, wasn't that good enough? Rationalizing it that way, they fell one by one for Inophe's temptations and ended up here.
And from then on, they suffered all sorts of humiliations.
"Selling our bodies to female guests was basic."
In one corner of the building, there were piles of strap-on dildos. Inophe had prostituted them to women like herself with similar sexual preferences to make money.
Afterward, consumed by jealousy, she would spew curses and lash out with violence.
-You whore! I'm your owner! Me!
I shook my head as I looked at the whips and other torture tools scattered around. In my view, it wasn't just simple jealousy.
'She has a sexual preference for women, and she enjoys tormenting them?'
What a screwed-up combination of traits.
"It didn't stop there. She branded our asses and fed us excrement... Sob, no one would treat us like animals unless they saw us that way..."
Tears streamed down their faces as they spoke. That part made even me feel a bit guilty, but compared to the trials I'd endured, this was tame.
'At least their hands and feet are free here. If it gets too much, they can always kill themselves.'
There were plenty of cases where you couldn't even die when you wanted to.
That's why I said the residents here were better off than those sea monsters. If captured alive by them... man or woman, within a day you'd be begging to die.
The fact that they hadn't suicided yet despite everything said a lot about their will to live.
"In short, Inophe has been ruling this place like a queen."
Nod.
"And you've been suffering under her, unable to do anything."
Feeling a bit frustrated, I said,
"Then why not just escape?"
Glancing over, the collars looked easy to remove. But the women turned pale and shook their heads vigorously. When I asked why, they explained that she periodically showed them the world outside the fence, demonstrating how many soldiers patrolled the streets.
And if anyone disobeyed, she would chase them out to be captured or killed by those soldiers, making them watch.
-Who else would keep trash like you alive if not me? Behave!
'Gaslighting.'
When I'd arrived, there were hardly any soldiers on the streets.
They only flooded out briefly during shift changes or mealtimes, so she must have timed it to instill fear.
"So you've stayed here all this time? And you'll keep staying?"
"..."
To my question, the women retreated to the most comfortable spot in their allotted one-square-meter spaces and curled up.
Even so, since they were fellow Earthlings, they willingly gave me the info I needed. I felt bad just leaving like this and tried to help, but they lacked motivation.
'Considering the gaslighting, their behavior is predictable...'
What to do.
Just abandon them?
I thought about it but quickly shook it off. I'd experienced despair myself once, and I remembered being saved by someone.
'Saintess would have helped somehow.'
So let's give them one chance.
Of course, they wouldn't budge like this... Hmm, looks like they need some strong medicine. I said,
"But do you know this?"
"?"
"This area will disappear soon."
"What... what do you mean...?"
The women rushed forward, eyes wide.
"I wasted a lot of time in the first trial. But trials and rest areas get deleted after a while. Including anyone who hasn't escaped."
"!!"
Only then did life return to the women's listless eyes.
"Feeling like leaving now? Even if you keep up this shitty life, your time left is short. You really want to end your life in this misery?"
I deliberately glanced around the surroundings.
The women, following my gaze around the squalid interior, trembled, looked down at their hands and feet, recognized their wretched state and situation. And pondered.
Squeeze. The pondering didn't last long. One by one, they stood, removed their collars themselves, and gathered at the door.
'But taking that first step isn't easy.'
Telling people gaslit multiple times to go back out into the dangerous world and fight? If it were that simple, social recluses like hikikomori wouldn't exist back on Earth.
"Ugh..."
And sadly, the women couldn't open the door. They couldn't step out on their own. But those who had clung to life enough not to suicide until now approached me and said,
"C-Could you help us?"
That was enough qualification to survive. As the women tightly gripped each other's hands and earnestly pleaded with me, I smiled and took their hands, leading them.
I strode forward, opened the door, and took them outside.
Whoosh—
Under the blinding sunlight, the women first shielded their eyes and averted their gazes. But soon they adjusted and took in the world again.
The reality they had fled from, but now the future they wanted to seize and run toward.
"Ah..."
A forgotten fresh breeze brushed their cheeks.
Even if the world was harsh, it was a hundred times better than that narrow, filthy closet. They must have felt that in this moment.
"Thank you."
"Really, thank you."
I waved it off as the women whispered their thanks.
"Do you have a plan from here?"
"Yes. First, we'll escape this place. Drink some water, replenish our strength with food, then head out."
Nod.
Sound plan. Calm and wise judgment. But maybe not enough.
"Still, we can't just leave like this. Don't we owe Inophe some payback for everything?"
"!!"
"She didn't even feed you properly despite her promises."
I smiled at the women as I heard the wet smacking sounds and Inophe's panting from inside the building.
"What do you say?"
The women looked at each other and nodded in unison.
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