Episode 389

Today, the sound of the horn announcing the beginning of the work shift blared in the distance. Strangely, unlike when I was in the living block, it didn't bother me much. That was because the punishment building itself was far away and isolated, and the tower was even soundproofed.

I got up from the ground. I'd opted to leave the bed alone and instead slept on the bare floor. As a lizardman, it was difficult for me to lie down due to my tail. So when I was in the form of Luzard, I preferred to sleep on my side or stomach.

It's a refreshing morning, I thought as I yawned widely and started stretching in rather relaxed motions.

I would have to rush to get ready if this was the living block, but the day in the punishment building started a bit late. It would begin at 9 o'clock, three hours after the sound of the horn. That meant there was no need to worry about being late even if I took my time. In addition, the work wasn't that hard.

First of all, I had to distribute meals to the prisoners I was in charge of. That was the most important thing apart from the correction. There were so many different races that I had to pay some extra attention to their food.

For example, in the case of Berwick, the only prisoner I was currently in charge of, I had to give him blood since he was a vampire. Of course, it wasn't human blood. It seemed to be animal blood.

"I don't like the blood of dead beasts anymore. I need fresher blood," Berwick complained. This damn vampire couldn't come to his senses and grumbled even after I brought him a blood pack.

I thought inwardly, He's too old to be a picky eater, so why is he acting like this?

I watched Berwick suck on the blood pack and felt both annoyed and sorry. Thus, I asked him, "Would you like to suck my blood?"

He replied, "Don't be disgusting. I would rather drink urine than suck the blood of a lesser race."

"So you have that kind of taste. I understand. I'll pack up a bit and bring it to you in the evening."

"You crazy guy."

He grumbled the whole time, but he was still eating fine. It was funny to see him drink carefully out of fear of spilling a single drop, but I wasn't the type of person to mock other people's eating habits.

Well, I couldn't resist saying, "Your nostrils flare every time you drink. Pathetic."

Still, he showed almost no trauma despite being beaten up yesterday. Maybe it was because he was a vampire. The same was true for Lanfero, who could basically heal his wounds by just replenishing blood.

Is he the Pope? I wondered for a moment, looking doubtfully at Berwick. Seeing how helpless he was against me, it was difficult to connect him with the being that was the Dark Pope.

Still, I had already met Michael. Just as I would never have imagined that the chatty fairy was Leone, I was convinced that the Dark Pope was a person I couldn't easily predict.

I was suspicious of Berwick, but I spoke to him without showing any signs of it. In any case, I had to talk to this guy for at least an hour a day in order to correct him.

I asked, "What did you do to end up in this labor camp?"

"I dined and dashed. Why?"

I had to resort to my fists the moment the other person came out with such a bad attitude.

"Kuaack! Ack! Sorry, I'm sorry! I won't act up! I'm sorry! Damn, my precious blood...!"

I'd realized yesterday that he was more afraid of losing a few drops of blood than having his muscles torn or bones broken. Naturally, I was forced to swing my fists so violently that blood flowed profusely. To begin with, education was something that had to be done differently according to each individual's aptitude.

In any case, Berwick became very polite after the correction was done. However, he returned to his characteristic bad nature when his wounds healed.

"Shit. How can there be a fist-wielding lizardman in the world?"

It seemed this was a problem child who was difficult to correct in a short period of time, so my enthusiasm for education burned even more fiercely.

I looked at the delinquent student and said seriously, "Speak only the truth during the correction time. I won't forgive you if you lie."

"Ah, yes. I will do so."

I sat Berwick down and started interrogating him again. I asked everything from the most basic personal details to what he'd done before he came to the labor camp, what crime he had committed, and how he'd ended up being sent to the punishment building.

"My name is Berwick and I don't know my age. I forgot it. In addition, vampires have no family. The exception is those of very noble, pure-blooded lineage.

"What did I do? I told you this earlier. I just ate. Yes. I know that eating people as I please is illegal in the empire, and it is a crime. However, isn't the number of humans too much? It is more than all the other races combined. I didn't think it would be noticeable if it decreased a bit.

"Why did I come here? I got tired of only drinking disgusting pig's blood. I thought I had to drink human blood, so I went for the guy sleeping next to me. I didn't eat him openly. It was late at night when everyone was asleep. I secretly sucked on him without anyone knowing, but I lost control."

After the interrogation, I concluded that the vampire Berwick was the worst trash among trash. He was a heinous criminal who should've been sentenced to death long ago. I wondered how such a guy still had his life. Then I remembered what I had heard somewhere.

I asked him, "Is the Golden Lord supporting you?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"I heard it when I was admitted."

"Really? Well, it isn't actually a secret." Berwick snorted and continued, "I don't know either. How can I know the thoughts of such high-ranking people? I just heard a few things. At the very least, she ordered them not to kill me until the end of this month.

The info coincided with the time mentioned by the Iron-Blooded Lord. At the end of the month, a force would be formed that would drive the lesser races to death.

Is it that the worse the quality of a prisoner, the more they become a sacrifice that can corrupt the ritual? Or is the vampire race itself of particularly bad quality among the lesser races?

I speculated about various things while continuing my questioning. "So you won't rebel like this next month?"

"I don't know. It depends on how it goes at that time." Berwick's expression was nonchalant. He didn't seem particularly afraid of dying, and he didn't act fully sane.

My impression was that his submissive behavior toward me was mostly because he didn't want to waste the blood that would spill as a result of violence. It was a familiar attitude to me. The mercenaries who lived only for the present day tended to have such an attitude.

I don't think he's the Dark Pope, I concluded. This kind of attitude came from one's whole approach to life, so it wasn't easily faked. It cleared up my doubts about Berwick. I couldn't say I was completely certain, but I decided he was an unlikely candidate for now.

The end of the morning meeting had come, so I got up from my seat. I said, "Berwick."

"What is it?"

"Please stay quiet this month. After that, I won't interfere with whatever you do."

"I understand, so please get some delicious blood. I'm really going to die like this."

"I will look into it."

***

It was noon by the time the morning work shift ended, followed by a two hour lunch break. I just had to work a further three hours after that and the day's work would be over. In other words, my work day ended at around 5 o'clock. All that followed was dinner, but that could take less than thirty minutes if I ate quickly.

The work schedule of the punishment building was also just five days a week, so it was possible to take two days off in a row on weekends. Of course, I had to take care of the prisoners' food even at that time.

It was no wonder that people were willing to pay bribes to get in here. This place was great compared to the regular living block. The difficulty of the work was easy and there was a lot of free time. It was also spacious and work incentives were handed out. Now I understood why the prisoners were desperate to become model prisoners.

Of course, I couldn't afford to fully enjoy these benefits. The punishment building was spacious and there were more prisoners than I thought. Since all of them were suspects, I felt the need to meet with all of them at least once.

In any case, the guards and senior model prisoners found it annoying to face the prisoners directly. Thus, they welcomed it when I offered to handle the work myself.

"You are good for a lesser race. It is beyond my expectations." Even Jisal, who had looked annoyed with me on the first day, spoke in a satisfied manner. It was easy to see how diligently I had worked.

In any case, time passed as I was acknowledged by the guards. However, if I were asked if I had achieved anything significant, I would have to click my tongue and shake my head.

None of the prisoners I met were decent. Well, the reason why they had been taken to the punishment building was because they weren't good people. They were all crazy, so it seemed like all of them could be the Dark Pope, yet none of them seemed to fit.

I should've at least been given a magical tool with a detection function. I clicked my tongue as I remembered the Soul Origin Dagger. It was clearly a great divine relic, but it was useless if the Dark Pope couldn't be identified.

On the third day, I suddenly felt that I wouldn't be able to achieve the results I wanted if I moved so timidly. Thinking about it, my situation was too serious for me to keep hiding my true purpose. That meant I had to take a certain amount of risks.

I thought about that and added a question at the end of each correction session: "What do you think of the Dark Church?"

Since ancient times, the best strategy when progress stalled was a head-on breakthrough. It was a somewhat unexpected question, which made it even better. After all, they were words that caught the prisoners completely off guard.

Most of the prisoners looked at me and cursed the church. It was funny that they were trash, but they treated the church members as even worse trash. There were also those who didn't have strong feelings toward the church. Others were directly or indirectly harmed by the church and thought of them as enemies. Other times, I even saw lunatics who wanted to return to the church.

I recorded in detail the words of the prisoners who spoke out against the church. They wouldn't be useful right now, but I might find some clues if I collected and organized them.

In any case, two more days passed and the break period finally arrived. I had a day off, but I woke up early in the morning and walked around the punishment building to meet more prisoners. However, there was no significant gain this time either.

On my lunch break, I finished correcting the personalities of the misbehaving prisoners and was sitting alone in the dining hall when I noticed someone sitting down in front of me.

He said, "Thank you for your hard work, new employee."

"Mm." I nodded.

The young man with a somewhat friendly expression was a guard called Larsen. He was the guard with the best reputation among the model prisoners. I heard he had the least experience among the guards and was pushed around a lot. Perhaps due to that, he seemed to understand the model prisoners well.

Besides that, it was clear that he was a good guy seeing that he didn't say or do anything discriminatory towards me, a lesser race.

He wondered, "Did you spend the day doing those guys' chores again?"

"They aren't chores. They are my duty."

"You are so inflexible. Working hard won't earn you a performance bonus, so don't overdo it. If you collapse here, they will just give you a few antipyretic pills and that's it. Ah. I heard that headquarters will be sending a healer soon. She is a nun from the Seventy-Two Churches and is said to be incredibly beautiful." Larsen looked at me and chuckled before continuing, "Well, that is irrelevant to a lizardman."

I glanced at his earnest face for a moment. Then I took a sip of cold water and spoke seriously like I had made a big decision. "Senior, I have a request."

"What? All of a sudden? Do you want to go out?"

"No, I want to go to the top floor."

The top floor of the punishment building was the only place I hadn't checked yet. To be more precise, I had delivered meals to the prisoners there, but I had never met them face to face. It was because all the prisoners on the top floor were heinous criminals, so I wasn't allowed to face them.

Larsen's eyes widened. He asked, "T-the top floor? Why there?"

I replied, "I heard that the most heinous people in the punishment building are detained there. Not to brag, but I have been correcting the prisoners quite efficiently."

"Mm. That is true."

I was being shameless, but it was still difficult to deny my statement. Even someone like Berwick, who didn't listen to anyone, had become a gentle and obedient sheep in front of me.

Larsen asked, "So? Do you want to correct the prisoners there too?"

I answered, "Isn't that my role?"

"No, no. That isn't it. That place is too dangerous. They aren't people you want to confront."

"Senior, have you ever seen them?"

"I saw them once. It was when I was just a newcomer."

I gave him a look demanding an explanation and Larsen sighed.

"Their whole bodies are bound by restraints. They can't eat or poop on their own. There are also those who have their eyes, their ears, or even their mouths covered. Can you imagine? They are locked in solitary confinement with their five senses sealed, unable to move. An ordinary person would go crazy in less than a month. But..." Larsen's voice started to tremble slightly as he continued, "They haven't gone crazy for twenty years. They aren't in their right minds, but they have no problem holding a conversation. That scares me. How can a person be like that? They aren't living beings. They wear human skin and speak human language, but they feel like demons."

If Larsen's intention in describing the top floor to me in detail was to warn me, it had the opposite effect and backfired. The more I listened to this man's explanation, the stronger I felt that the Dark Pope could be there.

I told him, "I just want to give it a try."

"You are so stubborn. Is it because you are a lizardman?" Larsen asked. I said nothing and he continued, "The right to interview the prisoners on the top floor belongs only to the vice-principal. Haven't you heard? The top person of this punishment building. His name is..."

"Obi Saiph."

An emotionless voice spoke, causing Larsen to jump up from his seat and exclaim, "V-Vice Principal?"

Before we knew it, someone was standing behind us. He was a middle-aged man with a thin body and an expressionless face.

Larsen stuttered, "W-what brings you all the way here on your day off?"

The man replied, "I came here because I had something to do."

This man was having a conversation with Larsen, but his gaze was fixed on me. I wondered if he was expecting me to greet him.

I got up from my seat. Then Vice Principal Obi said, "Sit down. In addition, Larsen."

"Y-yes?"

"Can you leave for a moment?"

"Huh? U-understood." Larsen instinctively nodded. He shot me a strange look and left the dining hall.

I was left alone with the top official of this punishment building. Larsen naturally hadn't been kicked out just so we could have a casual meal.

Besides that, it was the first time we had met, but he felt strangely familiar. I wondered if I'd seen him somewhere before. I seemed to have met a similar person relatively recently.

"Lizardman Luzard." Vice Principal Obi's emotionless voice interrupted my thoughts. "I have heard that you are displaying pretty good performance. There are more than a few prisoners who have already corrected their character."

I answered, "It is too early to tell. Still, it is true that I am doing my best."

"Yes. Just do what you are used to. By the way, I have a question for you."

"Say it."

"What do you think about the current situation of the empire?"

"Hm?" I stared at Vice Principal Obi at this sudden question. Then I realized when I had seen a person similar to this man.

I said, "No. Rather than that—"

It was when I'd met Lotus of Block 106.

I asked, "What do you think of the Dark Church?"

Obi was just like the man who had approached me under Gustav's orders.