[ Chapter 5 ]
I cautiously placed one of the shackles on his front paw. As I got up from my seat to put the other one on, I suddenly caught sight of his solid chest.
“I told you, officer.”
….did he turn into a human with just one shackle?
I took a step back in surprise, but a large hand suddenly reached out and grabbed my wrist.
“If you’re thinking about getting killed by another bastard, come to me.”
The rest, I couldn’t put on. There was no room for regret. Like cornering prey, he pinned me against the wall with both hands, making sure I couldn’t run away.
I was surrounded by his hands. I tried desperately to grab the whistle, but he got to it first. My throat stiffened. He seemed to want to enjoy my bewildered expression, as he leaned his upper body forward and tilted his head. His masculine features, with sharp and distinctive lines, were getting closer and closer to me.
“At least if you come to me, there will be no situation where you will die in an instant. I’m just thinking of playing with you thoroughly before killing you.”
I wonder if my expression was satisfying. I could feel the predator’s leisurely gaze, like that of a hunter staring at prey trapped in a trap.
“By the way, officer, I’ve been bothered since earlier, why are you being so respectful when it doesn’t suit you?”
My breath caught in my throat.
“You’re making a scared expression again, which doesn’t suit you at all. It’s quite different from your usual self.”
I felt his low voice, which sounded like a cold breath, brushing against the tip of my nose, as if he was observing my face up close.
“…..Things have changed.”
“You’re a typical opportunist.”
“So, does that mean you’ll spare me?”
“Hmm.”
As his hand, which had been pressing against the wall, moved toward my right ear, I involuntarily closed my eyes. His thick and wide hand was large enough to cover my small face all at once. Surprisingly, nothing happened even though I was expecting something. When I cautiously opened my eyes, he was staring at me, but then he looked away, seemingly annoyed, and ran his fingers through his hair as if he remembered something.
“Unlock the shackles first. Only officers can unlock them.”
I heard a metallic clinking sound near my left ear. The thick shackles on his wrists were swinging as if they were boasting. But I wasn’t a fool.
Whistle and shackles. These two are the only weapons that a prison officer like Lemony can use against a first-class prisoner.
“…I can’t.”
Deon, of course, didn’t believe me.
“Stop playing around and unlock it.”
“I don’t know how to unlock it.”
“Are you saying that a prison officer can’t unlock the shackles? That doesn’t make sense.”
“If you keep doing this, I’ll blow the whistle.”
As I hurriedly took out the whistle, a sudden cold breath brushed against my ear.
“Would it be faster for you to blow the whistle or for me to kill you?”
It was too fast. I didn’t even blink, and it was imperceptible. If someone had looked from the other side of the hallway, my view would have been completely obscured by Deon’s broad back. He was so close that I could vaguely see the contours of his ears and the smooth muscles rippling up and down below them. It was creepy to watch him move like a living, intricate statue.
It felt like something that shouldn’t exist in reality was moving alive.
“….Surely you’re not stupid enough to kill the only person who can unlock the shackle.”
“That’s why I put the rest of the shackles on you.”
“What?”
For a moment, I didn’t understand his words and my lips parted like a fool. His thick eyebrows rose satisfactorily as he confirmed my stupid expression.
“I guess you can’t run away now.”
Deon lifted his right hand as if to say, “Don’t you still understand?” Then, for some reason, my left wrist naturally rose along with his hand. Before I knew it, the remaining shackles were wrapped around my wrist.
“…are you crazy?”
It felt like all the blood drained from my body.
“Yes.”
Deon muttered coldly, without a smile on his face.
“I’m going crazy because of you.”
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No matter how hard I pulled, the shackles wouldn’t come off. At first, I thought about freeing only myself and running away, but I had never touched such shackles in real life and didn’t know how to unlock them.
In the original work, there were two ways to unlock the shackles of magic suppression. The first was at the discretion of the assigned officer to unlock them. The second was when the assigned officer faints, the magic disappears naturally, and the shackles come off.
I had no intention of fainting, so I had to unlock them myself. But why wouldn’t they come off?
Tuck, Tuck. I hastily pressed the button on the metal part like turning on a lighter, but nothing changed. In the end, it won’t come off, before I knew it, I found myself grappling with his thick wrist.
“Officer.”
It was impossible to escape without taking it off.
“Officer Lemony.”
The dust-stained palm was so large that it could not be grasped even if I held it with both hands. As I suddenly grabbed his hand and gripped the shackles, each joint of his thick and long fingers felt slightly stiff.
“Officer.”
I forgot about him calling me to release the shackles as I was trying to unlock them, and he chuckled as if he found my behavior ridiculous while looking down at me.
“Stop acting and take off the shackles.”
However, I was just as frustrated.
Perhaps the command magic might work. I started to get impatient and desperately blew the whistle, but Deon, who was standing leisurely with his arms crossed, didn’t respond to the command.
“Didn’t I tell you?”
“I told you to take it off.”
“These shackles can only be released by you.”
An inquisitive gaze with a hint of curiosity settled on my lips. However, after 10 minutes of struggling with his hands, Deon’s patience slowly began to run out.
“….yes, you don’t want to be shackled to death.”
When I looked up, his blood-red eyes filled with coldness reminded me of a predator or a beast. He seemed to think that I was pretending not to know how to unlock the shackles.
“Then let’s go together.”
Clang. A light and lively noise rang out. When Deon suddenly turned around and began to walk, the handcuffs on his wrist began to move in the direction he was moving.
The distance between the handcuffs was about 30cm.
“Where are you going?”
Deon was tall and also had long legs. However, he walked quickly without even caring about me, who was three times smaller than him. It was when I was dragged along, gasping for breath, unable to do anything.
“If you go downstairs, there are a lot of prisoners. Let’s take a look.”
“What?”
“They say the prisoners want to hit the prison officer just once.”
I tried hard to loosen up my stiff face from the awkward conversation. As he suddenly turned his head, he looked at me with expectant eyes.
“Why? Are you scared?”
When I remained silent without answering, he smirked as if finding it amusing.
“If you’re scared, go ahead and cry. Who knows, maybe if you keep whimpering, I won’t want to go down there. I might just want to stay and watch you instead.”
His words almost made me emotional this time. I quickly bit my lower lip to avoid crying. This time, I had to bite so hard that there was a mark of a walnut on my chin. For me, who suddenly possessed Lemony, it was frustrating that something hot was stuck in my throat, but this was reality.
I had to calm down. Deon wants me to suffer. The maximum resistance I could do while being bound in shackles was to maintain my composure.
“Back off, Deon.”
The hot lump in my throat went down with a gulp. I blew the whistle, and he took a step forward with a regretful sigh.
But just then, he stopped after taking one step.
I wondered if the command magic wasn’t working well. Feeling anxious, I gave the command again, even stronger.
“Step back more, Deon. Keep a distance of at least one meter from me.”
“Oh no, I can’t step back any further because of these shackles.”
However, he didn’t move at all. He just held onto my back and turned his head, letting out a small sigh as if his throat hurt.
“By the way, I’ve been looking down so much that my neck hurts.”
Deon didn’t back down. All I could do now was control Deon’s movements so that he couldn’t harm me.
But until when?
Until I cried and wailed as he said?
“Officer, give me another order.”
The hand holding the whistle began to tremble with petulance.
Was it because of his height? His size? The feeling of being unable to escape from his shadow? Or was it because of my expression, which concealed my fearful heart behind a mask? Or maybe it was because we were only separated by a distance of 30cm, making it impossible to move away from each other.
There were too many reasons for me to feel scared.
“…Didn’t you hate me?”
After a long silence, I opened my mouth first, but unfortunately, my voice cracked.
“You hated me.”
For the first time in a long time, he agreed with me cleanly.
“If you didn’t want to see me, you shouldn’t have approached me in the first place.”
“Officer. You were the one who hated me first. But at that time, instead of being indifferent, you stayed by my side and kept giving me humiliating orders.”
Did he come up with such a bad idea?
His low voice, which was already low, sank even deeper.
“I feel the same way as you do. Because I hate you, I can’t just leave you alone.”
The torch suddenly flickered, and thanks to that, the shadow that partially covered his face disappeared, revealing his distinct facial features. My whole body shuddered in an instant, and my breath caught in my throat. All that remained on Deon’s face was pure hatred and contempt.
Has anyone ever received such fierce hatred from someone?
But soon, I realized something.
I realized that I had never experienced proper hatred or love from anyone. In my current life, I had been hurt by the words and actions of my relatives, but it was more like a mockery than hatred, and their affection was too cold to be called love. I was not hated by them, but rejected.
Yes, I had never formed a close relationship with anyone.
“…then.”
I swallowed my saliva. It felt unfamiliar in an unpleasant way. Even the low-quality clothes I was wearing felt like they didn’t fit me properly.
“So you want to become the same as someone like me?”
He answered coldly, barely managing to close his mouth after the question.
“Yes.”
I suddenly felt shackles pulling me forward. My forehead hit a hard chest.
“….I’d rather be someone like you.”
The low-pitched voice was oddly twisted. Deon still glared at me with a fierce expression, but it seemed like a faint scar had passed across his face as he stared at me with a sullen expression.
However, my rising doubts disappeared with a powerful explosion sound that dominated the entire hallway from the other side. By the time I realized it was the sound of a gun, it was already after the back of my head hit the cold floor.
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Thank you for reading!
Thank you for the chapter. Can’t wait for the next ^-^