Chapter 122
“I'm hungry... I'm going to die at this rate...”
Someone wandered aimlessly through the streets.
Eventually, her legs gave out and she collapsed.
She had come all the way to Kellierton in search of the source of that sweet scent, but it had all been for nothing.
The blonde hair she'd used to disguise herself as a human was turning black again.
“Uuugh...”
She curled up as the endless hunger wracked her body.
She had reached the point of madness.
“Why... even after I posted lewd pictures...?”
She was the gallery's beloved, wholesome, demure user.
Her real name was Lillian, and she was a succubus.
What was a succubus?
A race that used other people's attention as sustenance.
“Why did I have to be born a succubus...”
The more attention, the better.
And the more intense the desire beyond mere attention, the better.
The problem was that Lillian was an antisocial, pathetic shut-in who liked staying home and browsing the gallery.
Contact with men? She knew nothing about it.
She'd survived by forcing herself to post lewd pictures, but at some point, her hunger had stopped going away.
“I can't... hold out any longer...”
When she glanced down, her hand had already begun to disappear.
Lillian collapsed beside an unfamiliar warehouse and slowly began to die.
Lillian nearly cried when she saw what had become of her.
How had she gotten out of there? How hard had she fought for this freedom?
She was about to disappear just like that, filled with resentment and regret.
“Whoa, who are you?”
A somewhat dispirited voice reached her.
When she weakly lifted her gaze, there was the source of the scent she'd searched so desperately for.
A delicious scent she could never resist.
It was Head Mod.
*
The AK47 gun rampage incident.
But with the bullets conspicuously absent.
- lol, serves him right
- Guess he gets a Reward now?
- But what was up with that woman just now?
ㄴ She really vanished in an instant.
He had tried to take the popular user Dryer hostage, only to have the tables completely turned on him.
The moment Dryer whispered something, the man collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
Thanks to that, the knights rushed in and subdued him in an instant.
Meanwhile, Dryer had disappeared into the alley.
“But why was she blonde?”
No, it wasn't just her hair color.
She didn't look anything like the Dryer I knew.
Her appearance was different enough that she could easily have been taken for someone else, but I recognized her by her eyes.
No one but the popular user Dryer had eyes that bright amber.
“That was definitely Dryer.”
The gallerybros seemed to think she was just some passing mage, but she couldn't fool me.
That was Dryer.
It definitely wasn't because I had looked at her lewd pictures so often that her image was etched into my memory.
- But what happens to that guy now?
ㄴ What do you mean, what happens? lol
ㄴ Seriously, does the queen hostage situation look like a joke?
ㄴ The guillotine event is coming right up.
The captured man's fate was already decided.
Execution.
Sure enough, a new featured post went up before long.
[Title: The 41,214th Real-Life Gallery User Beheading]
Author: Lloyd
(Meme of a bright flowering tree and a guillotine)
The 41,214th Real-Life Gallery User Beheading
The Kellierton Guillotine Festival is now open
However, since the event participant is a grave criminal who threatened Her Majesty's person,
we won't kill him all at once, so please show your support
Host: The Kellierton Royal Family
Date: x month x day, 12:00
Location: In front of Kellierton Central Plaza
[Upvotes 6632] [Downvotes 10]
- Has my stimulation charger finally arrived!!!
- (Meme of a farmer making a toast)
- (Meme: “Come here! The executioner’s here!”)
- We need a reward for threatening our cute Tuna-Tuna, right?
He had threatened the Queen of Kellierton herself.
Public sentiment calling for his immediate death began spreading like wildfire.
“Hmm...”
But I felt rather uneasy.
It wasn't because I was a modern person who disliked the death penalty or believed every life was precious.
Besides, I generally made a point of not interfering in matters like this, but this time was different.
-Head Mod*) Stop!!!
ㄴ ?
ㄴ Ah lol, “stop” is fair enough.
ㄴ Can't argue with “stop” lol
ㄴ But why are you telling us to stop?
ㄴ Seriously, Head Mod, don't be like that—come have a drink with us.
“No matter how I look at it, he wasn't in his right mind when he did that.”
Why would someone in first place threaten the innocent Tuna Queen?
It was strange even if he'd only been trying to draw me out.
He hadn't suffered any harm because of me.
If anything, he had benefited from the bounty, so he had no reason to hold a grudge against me.
-Head Mod*) Don't kill him yet; try capturing him.
ㄴ ? No, why?
ㄴ Lloyd) Do you have some suspicion?
ㄴ Head Mod*) It feels like he was forced into it somehow. Something seems off with him too.
Besides, there was no reason to kill him immediately.
He had already been rendered harmless.
We could interrogate him first. If it turned out he wasn't being manipulated, we could kill him then without any problem.
“But will they really hold off just because I tell them not to?”
The problem was that the man was a criminal who had threatened the queen.
From the kingdom's perspective, even immediate execution would hardly be enough to satisfy them.
I wondered if I might be interfering too much.
Or so I thought.
[Title: Head Mod, I did as you told me for now]
Author: Lloyd
(Meme of someone gagged and tied to a chair)
(Meme of a man struggling with bloodshot eyes)
What should I do next?
[Upvotes 6021] [Downvotes 12]
- lol, this guy really does whatever Head Mod tells him
- He's a case of someone whose social standing skyrocketed thanks to Head Mod.
- Knight under Adrian → Knight of the queen of a newly founded nation
ㄴ He's riding the wave insanely well lol
ㄴ But this is the right move.
“No, he didn't even hesitate over what I said.”
Still, Kellierton was even more favorable toward me than I'd thought.
After all, Lloyd, the second-highest-ranking person after the queen, was extremely favorable toward me.
Without asking a single question, he'd immediately built an interrogation room and posted a new thread.
The stage was set.
Lloyd: But this guy isn't listening very well.
Lloyd: I wonder if he'll really confess...
Lloyd: Just tell me what to do!
Head Mod*: Yeah, then...
I stopped chatting for a moment and looked toward the marketplace.
[Pepper Spray] - 31p
[Capsaicin Spray] - 40p
“Let's start off lightly.”
He doesn't listen?
That's fine.
Does he know about my capsaicin?
*
“Ptooey, you filthy dogs of the ruling class.”
The man tied to the chair spat.
The spit landed on the interrogator's clothes.
“You little bastard.”
It was at that moment that the interrogator, veins bulging in his forehead, was about to resort to violence.
“How is it going?”
“Captain of the Knights!”
The interrogator hurriedly bowed his head when he saw Lloyd enter the room.
He was a skilled interrogator, but he reported with a troubled expression.
“Well, he won't open his mouth. I've never seen someone this stubborn.”
“Is that so?”
“Honestly, I don't understand it. He laid hands on Her Majesty, yet you're not having him executed...”
“No, let's wait.”
Execution? It was what Lloyd wanted most.
But Head Mod had told him not to.
So both Evelyn, the person directly involved, and Lloyd decided to calmly wait for Head Mod's decision.
“He wouldn't say that without a reason.”
There was nothing to lose by following Head Mod's instructions.
Had Lloyd not doubted him just once, shouted that doing the opposite of Head Mod's advice was the way to profit, and ended up tasting Albocil?
“Never doubt Head Mod.”
“Yes? Yes...”
Having experienced it firsthand, Lloyd never doubted Head Mod.
As a result, his social standing had risen so high that he had become the foremost knight of an entire nation.
Still, he was a little curious.
“How are you planning to make this bastard confess when even pulling out his fingernails didn't change him...?”
It was while they were waiting for Head Mod's decision.
[Head Mod has shipped ‘1 Pepper Spray 10ml’, ‘1 Capsaicin Spray 10ml’!]
Something fell from the sky.
Two tiny canisters, each small enough to fit in a hand.
“What are these?”
He could tell at a glance, though.
The canisters, ominously red from top to bottom, would surely make him open his mouth.
Head Mod*: Don't ask questions; just spray him.
Head Mod*: Then, once he recovers, repeat it three times. Go go.
“Hmm...”
It was just as Lloyd was reading the instructions.
“You Head Mod lackeys!”
The man, unaware of what they were, shouted again.
“One day, I'll cut off Head Mod's head! I'll kill him somehow, no matter what!!!”
The man shouted with the veins standing out in his neck, unaware of what was about to happen to him.
Instead of answering, Lloyd shook the canister thoroughly up and down, then walked toward the man.
“Let's try it once...”
- Pssht!
Three seconds should do, right?
Lloyd began spraying the man for about three long seconds.
*
It had been about half a day since they captured the man.
Unexpectedly, a post went up soon after.
[Featured Post: This guy lol, covered in tears and snot lol]
Author: Lloyd
(Meme of someone trembling as if their entire body were convulsing)
(Meme of someone screaming that now they were in their right mind and would confess everything)
I've used it twice so far.
Should I use it one more time?
- ? What is this?
- No, seriously, he's trying to kill him lol
- Did he torture him or something?
ㄴ Lloyd) Not torture—just rubbing chili pepper into his eyes.
ㄴ You vicious son of a bitch.
ㄴ Elf) Aaaagh!!!
ㄴ (Meme of a knight staring straight ahead)
ㄴ (Meme: “Demon, this is too much...”)
At first, the man screamed, but after about the second application, black smoke began pouring out of his body.
“Looks like we got the scum out?”
-Head Mod*) ㄴㄴ You can stop now.
ㄴ Lloyd) Aw, so close hehe
ㄴ You demon;
ㄴ Never commit a crime in Kellierton.
Once the man returned to his senses, he confessed everything he knew before he could even ask whether he was going to get sprayed again.
“I-I remember. During a bounty hunt, I encountered an arachne in the forest.”
An arachne—wasn't that a monster from Roman mythology with a woman's body and spider legs?
It was also a staple enemy in games.
“The arachne placed some kind of curse on me, and when I came to, I was here.”
“Swear on everything?”
“Eek! Y-yes, I swear on everything I have!”
When Lloyd casually held the spray out toward him, he nodded frantically.
The black smoke that had left the man's body seemed to have been a form of mind-control magic.
-Head Mod*) Do you remember where it was?
“Uh, uh, well...”
When Head Mod commented, the man lowered his head with a troubled expression.
“I'm sorry. I don't remember...”
A magical beast that cast mental curses.
“Hmm...”
Lloyd: I even checked with a contract, and he doesn't seem to be lying, at least.
A magical beast that cast curses—this was the first time I'd heard of one.
The problem was that he didn't know its location.
“Should I put up a bounty for finding the arachne?”
It didn't seem like something to take lightly.
I was pondering a solution when—
-Boom!
A sound of something colliding came from the front entrance above the bunker.
“What was that?”
Nobody was supposed to come to my house.
Occasionally, people from the state had come by for things like household surveys and ID issuance, but that had ended now.
“Who is it?”
I asked while holding a shotgun, but there was no answer.
For confirmation, I checked the external CCTV camera I'd installed in advance, but there was nothing in front of the door.
“Did someone ring the bell and run?”
No, did they even have that in the Middle Ages?
Whatever had come, I cautiously opened the door with a shotgun in one hand and a riot shield capable of normalizing anything in the other.
Someone had collapsed beside the open door, gasping for breath.
“...Dryer?”
I found Dryer collapsed there, half-conscious.