Here, there is a group of prisoners.
“Damn it, Jay! If you hadn’t touched that trap—!”
“Shut up, Andy! You were the one who suggested we take that path in the first place!”
Stripped of all their equipment, forcibly changed into prison clothes, and fitted with magic-suppressing manacles, seven prisoners are crammed into a narrow, pigsty-like cell, snarling at one another.
“Everyone, calm down. We still have a way to survive.”
Kite, the strongest-looking of the men, spoke quietly.
“We’re a rescue party sent here by Baron Gilbert’s order. Though the enemy was far stronger than we expected, they captured us alive and took us prisoner like this.”
“They’re only keeping us alive so they can kill us later—!”
“No.”
At Kite’s certain voice, everyone swallowed hard and listened.
“They aren’t trying to kill us.”
“Then…?”
“…At the very least, it means they won’t kill all of us. Even if they do kill us, some of us might survive.”
At Kite’s pessimistic—or perhaps hopeful—words, the adventurers began watching one another’s reactions.
Someone would have to die.
If so, who?
“It matters which legion this is. At least one thing seems certain: it’s not them.”
“You mean one of the Demon King’s four legions?”
“Right. At the very least, it isn’t the Beast Legion. If it were, we’d have been thrown to the giant magical beasts as food by now.”
The Beast Legion did not take prisoners.
They captured prey, but they did not dress that prey in prison clothes.
Just as one strips the scales from a fish in order to eat its flesh, they merely stripped away their armor to make them easier to eat, then threw them into the beasts’ cages.
“Then… the Undead Legion?”
“Not them either. If it were, we’d have become skeleton soldiers long ago.”
“……Should we hope that it’s the Demonkin Legion?”
The youngest man, Jayden, swallowed hard before speaking.
“If it’s the Demonkin Legion, then at least we could survive for the time being, even if we ended up as slaves, couldn’t we?”
“Live as slaves to the Demon King’s army—to the demons? Damn it. That’s impossible. It would be blasphemy against the Goddess.”
“Could it be the Vampire Legion? No, would that even matter?”
Jay tore at his hair.
“If it’s the Vampire Legion, they’d tie us down on an altar, bind our limbs, then tear our hearts out while we were still alive… Ugh…!”
“Everyone, steel your hearts.”
Kite clasped his hands together.
“We are adventurers, but we are also servants of the Goddess. No matter what end awaits us, let us die with our dignity as human beings intact.”
“Ugh, uuuuh…”
“May the Goddess hold us in Her embrace.”
When Kite began to pray, the other adventurers also clasped their hands together one by one.
“Hey, Captain.”
“Yes. What is it?”
“Your wife…”
“…….”
Kite, who had been praying with his eyes closed, suddenly grimaced at Jay’s words.
“……Zentia will surely be all right. Even if she dies, she’ll preserve her dignity as a human—”
Step, step.
Footsteps came from outside the cell.
The footsteps were far too leisurely for someone approaching a prison, and all the adventurers clamped their mouths shut.
Step, step.
The footsteps stopped.
A figure wearing black shoes and a suit came to a stop in front of the cell.
“You…”
“Is this this time’s ‘sacrifice’?”
“Yes, Instructor.”
The one who appeared with a pink-haired succubus secretary at his side spoke with a man’s voice, but wore a helmet that concealed his face.
“You, you—!”
It was a helmet used by the Gilbert Knights.
The moment Kite recognized it, he sprang to his feet and charged at the bars.
“What have you done to Sir Jake?!”
Though it had been somewhat crumpled, the helmet concealing the figure’s face clearly belonged to Jake, the illegitimate son of Baron Gilbert.
“You asked what I did to Jake?”
The man spread both arms and chuckled.
“I am Jake.”
“What did you say…?”
“I was reborn here as a new being.”
“W-What…!”
Kite was dumbfounded.
“Your build and voice don’t match at all! What nonsense are you spouting?”
“Yes. Of course they wouldn’t. But I was reborn. I made the ‘right choice’ and was reborn as a member of our Vampire Legion.”
“Our… Vampire Legion?”
“That is correct.”
The man who called himself Jake gripped the whip in his hand and pulled it sharply from side to side.
“By the grace of the commander of the Vampire Legion, I have become an instructor.”
“W-What are you talking about…!”
“Who shall be the first to stand before the judgment seat?”
The self-proclaimed Jake Gilbert raised one finger.
They bore none of the marks of a hand that had wielded a sword as a knight for many years, yet the instructor moved that lone middle finger with complete confidence.
“Which of you seven shall be the first to stand before the judgment seat? Decide among yourselves.”
“J-Judgment seat…?”
“We shall place your hearts upon the Scales of Sin and determine the price of your crimes. We shall ask our god, and those who have sinned shall repay their debt with their lives.”
“L-Life…?”
Kite and the other prisoners realized it.
That man was insane.
Among humans, there were occasionally dark mages who became agents of the Undead Legion and studied black magic. They sometimes displayed that kind of fanatical appearance.
This man was exactly like that.
“Could that really be young Master Jake…?”
“Who shall be the first to stand before the judgment seat? Who shall be the first to bear witness to his faith? Oh, you seem most suitable.”
The instructor slowly looked over the prisoners.
“You.”
“N-No, please!!”
He pointed at the adventurer Jay.
“You shall be the first to stand before the judgment seat. Secretary.”
“Yes, Instructor.”
“Take him away.”
“Yes.”
The succubus extended a hand, and pink chains appeared from thin air, instantly wrapping around the adventurer Jay’s neck.
“Kh, khk, gasp…!!”
Jay tried to resist by pulling at the chains, but with both his strength and magic under control, his struggle was meaningless.
“Jay!”
The adventurer captain Kite shouted.
“Don’t forget! No matter the circumstances, the Goddess is watching over you!”
“Kh, uaaaaah!!”
Clank.
The cell door opened, and Jay was dragged away by the chain like a dog being led to the slaughterhouse.
“…….”
The cell.
One prisoner had disappeared, and six remained.
* * *
A little later, in the ‘Room of Walls.’
“Instructor.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you deliberately pretend to be a Gilbert?”
“Yeah.”
“May I ask why?”
“Just because.”
“…….”
When I appeared wearing the Gilbert helmet, my secretary Lilith gave me a look that clearly said, What on earth? But I merely shrugged lightly and pointed ahead of her.
“I’m doing it for fun. Just for fun.”
“For… fun?”
“Yeah. Isn’t it amusing? Even though they know I’m not Jake Gilbert, all it takes is for me to casually say, ‘I am Gilbert,’ and their minds start twisting themselves into knots.”
I gestured with my chin toward the man being dragged along with his eyes and ears blocked.
“Is he really Gilbert? He’s become a completely different person? You can survive by submitting to the Demon King’s army? Even if it means becoming their agent?”
“…Ah.”
Lilith snapped her fingers and exclaimed.
“You’re planting the idea in their minds. That there are already prisoners who have sworn loyalty to the Vampire Legion.”
“That’s part of it.”
More precisely, he had once been a porter before becoming Instructor Azazel.
“Would they be tempted by me as an example? I’d have to be the illegitimate son of Baron Gilbert’s family and a fairly accomplished knight for them to fall for it.”
Creak.
I opened the door and entered the Room of Walls.
Three succubi were already embedded in holes marked with the numbers 1, 2, and 3, their lower bodies exposed toward us.
Clatter!
Lilith gave the chain a hard tug, flung the prisoner into the Room of Walls, and released the magic restraining him.
“Aaah! H-Help… gasp?!”
The man flailed his hands and struggled desperately to live, then screamed in shock at the flesh-colored masses before him.
Even as he panicked, he watched Lilith and me, subtly rolling his eyes over the exposed vulvas.
“I will give you a chance.”
“A-A chance…?”
“That is correct.”
I pointed ahead.
“The two here are female companions who were captured alongside you.”
I stood between numbers 1 and 2, then gave each of their buttocks a loud slap with my hands.
Smack.
The two women flinched and pressed their legs together.
Seeing that they could not resist at all despite being struck, the prisoner swallowed hard and looked up at me.
“Have you ever had sex with your companions?”
“…….”
He shook his head.
The man answered my question as if he were in a daze.
“Good. Will you rape your companion in order to survive?”
“W-What are you talking about…?”
“Here are your choices.”
I turned and approached the third woman, placing my hand on her buttocks.
“There is also an arrogant priestess who still refuses to submit to the Vampire Legion.”
“A priestess…?”
“Foolishly, this woman still believes the Goddess will save her. A pitiful woman.”
“…….”
“You have probably never even met her.”
Here were his choices.
“If you want to live, rape her.”
“What…?”
“Put your penis into one of their vaginas and ejaculate inside. Then you will survive ‘today.’”
“Today…?”
“If you do not ejaculate inside her, you will die.”
“……!!”
If he did not ejaculate inside her, he would die.
“Rape my… companion…?”
“There is also a priestess who is not your companion. A priestess who clasps her hands as though in prayer and prays to the Goddess.”
That priestess was praying with her hands clasped behind the wall, a flail held at the ready.
“Choose.”
I had not told him yet.
There was one, and only one, path by which he could survive.
A path for someone who would neither abandon his faith in the Goddess nor betray his companions—for someone with enough humanity to willingly offer his own life.
‘We do need someone to send a letter to Count Albatea’s family.’
Someone who would neither sacrifice his companions nor betray the Goddess.
A miracle in which someone prepared to die survived instead.
Someone who chose to die, even when offered the choice of surviving by thrusting his penis into a vagina—of living through rape.
‘People like that are difficult to use in the instructors’ room.’
Since there was no sign that such people would fall into depravity, there was no need to keep them here in the first place.
But—
“I-I have a question.”
“What is it?”
Sometimes—
“……Who is Zentia?”
Even in a crisis, humans sometimes gambled in order to satisfy their desires.
“Are you saying you want to fuck your superior’s wife?”
“…….”
“Good.”
I pointed to number 1.
“Put it in her.”
“…….”
The prisoner raised himself and pulled down his pants.
Wetly.
“Grrrgh…!!”
Even with his hands shackled, the prisoner placed them on number 1’s buttocks and raised his head.
“…….”
Through the door Lilith had left open, I subtly checked inside.
Lilith watched the prisoner thrusting into number 1, ensuring that he could not enter beyond the wall, while I looked past the beds where the succubi were sprawled and toward the other side.
“……Heh.”
Opposite the succubi.
More precisely, directly opposite succubus number 1, who was being raped at that very moment.
“…….”
A woman was sitting there, bound tightly to a chair.
Her name, apparently, was Zentia.
“Don’t worry.”
I smiled at the man thrusting away.
“They don’t know who’s thrusting into them. Heh heh heh.”
That was a lie, though.